How Can I Meet My Neighbors?

Posted by Teen Bean

So when I moved into this community house I had a dream of meeting all my neighbors, of us all being buddies, and living it up! But Sadly I have yet to really "meet" any of them. Our neighbors on the corner seem to do a much better job. They are three slightly odd glass blowing blokes who spend most of their time... heeeyuk... glassblowing. They also just will spend time hanging out in their back yard chilling around a camp fire...


Time... I am realizing if I am going to meet my neighbors I need time... and being intention. But is it weird to just go knock on the door and be like "HI! I wanted to meet you!!!" I feel like I need an in... but what!?!?!?

Between work and school I am fried... and time is something I just don't have. What am I meant to do and be in this place? How am I meant to do and be in this place?

I feel like I have already waisted two good months... and a year goes by so quickly... what to do... what to do!?!?!?

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Bill time

Posted by Teen Bean

I must say, most months when it comes to paying bills I'm a little depressed. there never seems to be enough air around me to squeeze more money out of....


of course this is me being completely selfish, as the other day I realized what a privileged position I am in... loads of time i moan about having to work full time and be in grad school full time, but it is such a blessing to be about both... work and education are pure gold.

Plus living in my community house has really helped spread out the cost of living... ahhh its nice to be able to split things like Internet, electric, and milk!

all in all there is something to be said about how satisfying it is to pay for the thing I use or need. Working is such an amazing part of who I am... if i couldn't work it would be so hard for me to feel like a real person in the real world... It reminded me of this article i read (i totally have forgotten the name and author!!) that reminded us that work is a part of our worship to God.

This made me even more aware of why it is so important to help people find jobs to allow them to enter working worship to God.... Hmmm I never thought that as a person that desperately wants to see the kingdom of God lived here on earth that I would become an advocate for the economy and employment opportunities....

bottom line... even though money seems tight a lot of the time, the huge amount of blessings I have and the opportunities I am given really humbles me to realize how important it is to just say...

Thanx God for helping me pay my bills!

xx

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Collaboration

Posted by Teen Bean

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I preach comfortable christianity

Posted by Teen Bean

First take a look at this link:

Comfortable by The Streets

I was watching this video and was deeply challenged. As a Christian it seems like pain, suffering, and discomfort is what always takes us to the next level... the deeper intentionality, the more aspiring inspiration.... comfort and (cringe) that phrase "comfortable Christianity" is likened to that bible verse where we are challenged as Christians to be either hot or cold because to be lukewarm makes God sick enough to vomit. (The Message Revelations 3:16)

But as I was watching this genius and slightly odd video by The Streets, I keep asking myself "Is there something in "comfort" that equally, if not more, challenges us to be intentional and deeper?"

I started thinking about community, especially the love I have for prayer/missional communities and realized that comfort is one of the major themes we grab a hold of to reach out to people. Phrases like, "we wanna meet you where you are not" and "church on the street" are ample examples of how comfort and being comfortable is powerful emotion that can be used to connect to people and the real life they are living.

I started realizing that that idea of "comfort" is edgy and radical. Being comfortable is another way of feeling free. I think of times when I have started going to a new place or being in a new group of friends... the moment things really start to change and I really start to feel impacted are when I start to feel comfortable. A sense of comfort in these moments makes me have the courage to be more of myself, to be honest, to be challenged. For this reason, the idea of fighting for comfort is parallel with fighting for freedom. Freedom is a state of being released or free from confinement and thus is the ultimate goal of Christ justice. To be free from the chains and bondage of sin and able to live comfortably again in a restored relationship with God is the Good News Christ implored us to tell.

Comfort by no means is a single event. It is a process and often to feel the most comfort we have to be intentional about entering uncomfortable situations. And so I am reminded of the message that The Streets sends in "Comfortable" that sometimes we let our lives get so cluttered with the idea of making sure we are "uncomfortable" or "suffering" that we forget what it is we really are living for which is for an eternity of comfort with our Savior and God.

For this I am challenged to live a lifestyle that is radical and edgy... a life as a comfortable christian that using that love of comfort to be intentionally about entering the most uncomfortable situations and to seek out the God of freedom, justice, and love.

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England Scares Me!

Posted by Teen Bean

I started applying for my "fiance/marriage visas" today. Wow, who knew one government could have so much control over my life!?!?


I had to answer some pretty crazy questions and man they do not want to share their public services with newbies (so my recommendation is that I better have access to bucket loads of money!)

how awful would it be if steve and I planned our whole wedding and then I can't come because the UK says we can't get married? How crushing would that be? The way this wedding planning has gone thus far I wouldn't be surprised if this happened.

Why are things so freaking complicated? What ever happen to the idea of letting two people who were in love choosing how, where, and when they wanted to get married and just being happy for them!

hmmm well, I"m not going to let this pop my happy bubble! ahhhhhhhh steve and my wedding is going to be the bestest most lovely wedding! how, when, and where ever that happens!


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Lil' hope for my ICCD Peeps

Posted by Teen Bean

i wrote this in a text message to Tiffo... then laughed and now I want to share it with you all


"encouragement with classes?
well pull right up w/ teacher let me fix my glasses
cuz this iccd cohortz gunna kick some asses
cuz we be the hope of the fuckin masses

:D

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Declared

Posted by Teen Bean

My Thesis Topic: Intentional Communities


Communities I've used as Research

"217 Boiler House" Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex, UK
"Boiler House" Colchester, Essex, UK
"24-7 Center" Ibiza, Spain
"Christiania" Copenhagen, Denmark
"Shelter City" Amsterdam, Netherlands
"Source Boiler Room" Minneapolis, MN
Emergent Church, Seattle Wa
American Hotel-Hostelling International, Seattle Wa

My Favorite Research Books

"Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers" by Elizabeth Newman

"Punk Monk" by Andy Freeman

"When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

"Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love" by Lonni Collins Pratt and Daniel Homan

"Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice" by Daniel G. Groody

"Nudge:Awakening Each other to the God who's already there" by Leonard Sweet

"Traveling as a Political Act" by Rick Stevens

"The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" by Shane Claiborne

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happiness

Posted by Teen Bean

My wedding dress is being shipped to me at this very moment... i've never been so addicted to USPS tracker page :)



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look what the closet dragged out

Posted by Teen Bean

I was searching for my favorite boots... and as i was digging through my closet i found my scarves! i am sooo happy for it to be fall time again. i was walking down the sunny ally today and was like "wooahh this is like one of my last autumns in the northwest... and maybe in america for a while"


that was a little weird to think about... but wow do i love fall!!

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Do governments create laws that include or exclude?

Posted by Teen Bean

talking about child rights in my class tonight... i'm a bit confused. the issue of do we advocate for child rights or does that undermine a life that is in the best interest of those children? If we give government the right to step in as an advocate for child when parents are "forcing" them do do things that they do not want to be involved in ... is this good or bad... yes governments could step in and get children out of situations where they are being abused sexually, physically, emotionally... but what about children that declare they are being abused because their parents chose a certain lifestyle for them based on faith (which maybe go against what main stream society says is ok)?


this got me to wondering, do people really feel like they are involved in the rule of government or has government become an excuse for people to not be involved. I got to wondering if the laws that are being made are laws that are calling people to be more active or encouraging more people to detach??

i'm not sure? i want to believe that people who are properly educated and informed would choose to do the right thing. but what if they don't? who's call is it to step in and enforce that? hmmm hard to say!

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Performance Review

Posted by Teen Bean

well had to meet with my boss for performance review. all high marks... so thats good... then again i work all by myself all night... so how do they really know how good a worker I am? hmmmm


haha but it was good to know that things are going smoothly... ooo and in 3 more weeks i get a 20 cent raise... heck yeah for putting in a year of work!

oh man i can't believe i have worked this job for another year! and learned another crazy amount of lab test and procedure... craziness.

the interesting thing is how this job experience has really just made me realize how i really do like health care. its fun, its high speed, its high skill... so much so i decided i wanted to go to nursing school.

I prayed about it and really felt like God was giving me green lights to go... but then when i started checking stuff out in the UK its definitely a "wait". They want me to be a resident for 3 years first ... that seems like FOREVER!

but if its something i really want then i guess waiting three years shouldn't change that. Its just sometimes i feel all the pressure of these roles and I'm just like what if I start living life so deeply i forget my dreams or something??

hmmm, i wonder if mostly this is because school is a safe zone for me. Its really scary giving up america and my life here and heading off to england. New land, new wife to be, new job, new friends, new church... its all going to be sooo different. In some way if i was going back to school that would be something familiar to me... hm now its all just back to completely new and scary and different and exciting!

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India!

Posted by Teen Bean

India fascinates me! I attended a Hostelling International World Travel: India Event. The young women that lead it lured me into her experience with talk of chai teas, trains, and street food vendors. I was so intoxicated by the idea that i swear i started smelling the beautiful stench of New Delhi.
My soul is starving for travel. How can the world hold such magnificently diverse people, places, and experiences? I feel like the world is a ginormous, dropping, 9-month pregnant mother-to-be, waiting to give birth to my very desires.

I feel like I'm standing on this cliff that is over looking all the places of the world... but am i putting the right wings on to fly there?

Lately I feel like I've lived most my life. Like I just get once chance to blink and then its over. I feel like I'm in mid-blink. Will I like what I see when i open my eyes again? This "dream like state" mid-blink brings, has me dreaming of walking labyrinth in Europe, riding elephants in India,
snapping pictures of Russian architecture, sleeping on trains through Siberia, shoving prayers in the wailing wall in Jerusalem, eating yummy cheese in a small town in France, helping build communities in Kosova, watching the sunset in Greece... AND SO MUCH MORE!

Is there going to be enough time in life to see
it all? I'm wondering if life can hold as much as I'm wanting it to?

Well regardless India is my new obsession....

Interesting things I learned.

#1 there is no toilet paper in India they use a cup of water for "washing"

#2 dark is out, light is in... everyone tries to be as white as possible UV protection is in everything

#3 they really don't say Thank you there, it takes away the "honor" of helping

#4 all older men and women are called "uncle" or "auntie"

#5 you must bargain for everything you buy

#6 pens are the best gift! they encourage favor from the gods. Give someone a good pen and you have done a good deed!

so anyone want to go to India with me??

(p.s. this has further sparked my desire to get that elephant tattoo!)

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class

Posted by Teen Bean

so we have class on thursday nights. I also am mentored by an amazing women named Elizabeth Chapin right before class.... I decided to take the bus... in an effort to continue my environmental awareness... and mostly because holy crap my school tuition is expensive this semester!! (haha plus i got my car towed again... so i have to some how find $300 spare dollars!! oh the joy of squeezing money out of thin air!)


but i digress....

so i met Elizabeth at said coffee shop we talked about my week and woooahhh big revelation i realized loads of my anger towards God is because I believe that love means you never get hurt... we talked about me praying through that this week... hmmggg

then wen to class where all my class mates shared what they did this summer! talk about amazing!!!! everyone was so inspirational. Even the people that started out saying they didn't think they would have anything super amazing... ahhh everyone brought some really valuable life lessons.

i got to share more about how i want to write some spiritual guide book. i didn't talk so much about labyrinth, but you know only so much time. That being said more then every i really want to include it in my thesis... eeek

I have to have a meeting with my academic advisor to get my "idea" cleared before we start writing. wow i can't believe we are already to this point! writing my thesis SHUT UP!!

this weekend is going to manic. I am helping out at a cultural kitchen project that i put together specifically to help refugees. its the first time the hostel has do a Cultural Kitchen for Refugees so you know... it should be exciting!

plus there is Salmon Festival, A friends CD debut, going out for drink, A fundraiser for fight sex-trafficking ... oh and did i mention more homework! sheeesh! wink i'll have a blast!

beanie!

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