New Home and New Homies

I arrived in DC in the morning on Sunday August 27 on a red-eye flight from California. That day my housemates and I moved in and met for the first time. We got to know each other pretty quickly though as we spend the entire next week together in orientation. We live in a large 1920ish built house on a main street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC. The 5 girls each have their own rooms and the 2 guys share the master bedroom.

The most striking thing to me is the welcome that we've received from members of Church of the Savior (our supporting church). A diverse group of people have welcomed us with open arms and sincere hearts to really get to know us and build relationships. And they're pretty radical in how they are trying to live out this Christianity stuff. I'll probably explain more about Church of the Savior in a later post.

Our time during orientation included sessions on the inner journery, social justice, anti-racism, and community living. We were challenged among ourselves with deep discussions and everyone who we met also began genuine conversations. We also visited the 7 organization in which we will be working, which also started discussions about the social issues of DC and justice in general. I realized very quickly that these are my kind of people when my second conversation with Avery (a black, middle-aged recoveries ministry pastor) began by him asking me what I thought about the phrase "mutually liberating relationships."

Now that I've had some time to think about it all - why I'm here and what I'm doing here - there's been one thought bouncing around in my head. The song "Christ, be the center of our lives" really resonates with me and I like to think of that phrase as a defining focus in my life. First of all, a key word is "our" rather than "my" because life is a communal thing. And to take that a step further, if Christ is the center of our lives and whatever I do to the least of these I so do unto Christ, then the least of these must also be the center of my life.