Friends, Food, Pie and Such...

Every Wednesday afternoon the twelve of us PULSErs gather for a seminar in which we learn lots of cool interesting things about personal and professional development, community development, and also engage in some direct service. It's usually a good time.

This afternoon was our first participant led seminar which meant that a couple of our peers led the seminar. Since Thanksgiving is fast approaching and since we normally have our community meals on Wednesday evenings, Sarah and Jakob thought it would a great idea to spend the afternoon cooking a full Thanksgiving meal and then enjoying it for dinner. So we commenced in preparing a turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, sweet potato casserole, cornbread, stuffing, rice pudding, apple pie, cherry pie and pumpkin pie. It was quite the feast! And it was delicious.

We got to cook with each other, learn about family traditions from each other, eat together, feel completely stuffed together, and just enjoy spending quality time with each other. And I got to carve my first turkey (mom, you would be proud; Mike, I'm still okay with you doing this job at Thanksgiving).

Today was a day of learning, a day of fellowship, eating, bonding and fun with with friends. It's hard to believe I've known these people for a little under three months, yet they've become great friends. Each of them has their own collection of interesting stories that shape who they are, and days like these are perfect for learning a little bit more about them :)

Happy Birthday, Dad

We celebrate birthdays each year - usually in the warming presence of family and friends. Birthdays are wonderful because they signify the precious gift of life, that moment when we entered the world for the first time unprotected by the mother's womb. Which brings to attention the fact that our mothers deserve just as much recognition on our birthdays as we do! Their willingness and struggle to bring us into the world demonstrates that our existence is one born out of both their love as well as the Creator's love (a deeply profound theological implication!). A day to celebrate life...that's what a birthday is. But what happens when the person whose life we are celebrating is no longer physically present?

That's where my thoughts currently linger because today would be dad's fiftieth birthday celebration. It would be a grand party - my grandma, mom, sisters and other family all celebrating dad's fifty years of life. I tried (or am trying) to think back to the last birthday we celebrated with dad. It would have been his thirty-seventh. I can't remember it. I can't even recall one birthday celebration we had for him. I don't know why...I wish I could remember something about at least one of them. But memories, like many things, fade with time, and I am all too aware of that reality.

My thoughts today lie with my Grandma Jean, who will be without her son on his birthday. She's one of the strongest women I've ever known, and continues to be a strong support in my life. My thoughts are with my mom, also one of the strongest women I've ever known, on this day as she will be without the man who she deeply loved. My thoughts are with my sisters with whom I sympathize because, together, we will be without our dad on his birthday. And my thoughts lie with dad as I ponder the significance and meaning of birthdays, especially as today would be his fiftieth. 

So how do we celebrate a person's birthday when they're no longer with us? Should we even celebrate that person's birthday? Yes, and this is what I'm going to do today on dad's fiftieth birthday: I'm going to light a candle for him and think about the precious time I had with him; I'm going to celebrate the life he had, his accomplishments, his music, his passion for the church, his desire for strong relationships, his love for his wife and children, for his family, his excitement over "the latest electronic gadget", his inexplicable desire to be daring on a motorcycle (despite the number of accidents), the great value he placed on his family, the joy he found in seeing his kids happy, and his example as a husband and father. I'm reminded today of these things, and I'll let my mind wonder into those places where I normally keep it on a tight leash and well-guarded. Today is a day to celebrate the gift of his precious yet ever so vulnerable life.

Happy birthday, dad. You're loved and missed, and the memories of your life still give us cause to celebrate.

Hannah's Visit!

This past weekend was especially wonderful. My wonderful sister, Hannah, came to Pittsburgh to visit Friday to Saturday. She's a junior at Mount Vernon Nazarene University studying early childhood development. And she loves it there! Which makes me really happy for her. It's also really cool because, unlike most of us who go back and forth between what we want to do with our lives, she has always wanted to be an elementary school teacher...ever since I can remember.

On Friday night we enjoyed an authentic Indian meal at a restaurant just a few blocks from our house in the Garfield neighborhood. It was such good food! And we got to talk a lot about each other's lives in terms of where we are with relationships and what we want to do in the years to come. Hannah shared about her desire to teach overseas for a period of time. Awesome! I'm excited to see how that works out for her.

Saturday morning we took the bus downtown to a place called the Strip District which a really cool marketplace full of lots of neat shops and sidewalk vendors. We enjoyed a couple hours down there before taking the bus back to our house.

Although our time together was short, it was great to spend time with Hannah, let alone see her! She left for college in mid August so it's been almost two months since we last saw each other! And it's been almost two months since I've seen the rest of my family. I miss them! But I'll be visiting them in about two weeks so I'm looking forward to that! Oh, and they get to meet my wonderful girlfriend, Anna (some of them for the first time!), so it's going to be extra fun. Can't wait!

I guess I just want to say that I'm proud of Hannah for the things she's doing at school and for the direction she's going with her life. I hope things work out for her and that she's happy no matter what she does or where she ends up. Thanks for the visit, sis :)

Sometimes You Have to Create Opportunities

This past summer was the second I spent working in a factory, Classic Products. On my last day I vowed not to work in a factory again. The work there was terribly monotonous and menial; I mean, when you eagerly anticipate the next chance to jump up on a forklift and take a spin - even if it's just to put away a skid of boxes - you know something's not right. Despite my strong distaste for the work, there are things I will always value from that experience, and I realize if I hadn't spent two summers in the factory I would be deprived of those experiences and life lessons all together. In other words, I wouldn't trade those months for anything. The guys I worked with - no matter how rough, backwards, ultra-conservative, bedraggled and unadulteratedly weird - came to be like family to me. They became my friends. We laughed together, argued with one another, complained about "the man" and "those spoiled office workers" together, suffered in uncomfortable work conditions together, and of course made hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal roofs together.

I have lots of stories I could share, but this past week has specifically reminded me of one, or rather of a bit of wisdom I gleaned from the most unusual source. One of the plant mechanic's name was...well...we called him "Chock". That was his nick name I assume. When I picture ol' Chock I see that balled head of his perched atop his stout shoulders and unreasonably large, round belly. The man stood stood about five feet and five inches off the ground and weighed close to 300 pounds I would guess, and his commanding personality and I'll-take-no-s**t-from-anyone attitude definitely derived its authority from his weight and not his height. This dude was rough. And you didn't want to push his buttons. And let's just say he wasn't the most beloved worker in the plant. But for some reason good ol' Chock seemed to take a liking to me.

Chock would occasionally ride around on this electronic cart because he had bad knees (we gave him crap for this because everyone else had to walk to wherever they were going in the plant...even the other grandfathers who worked there). One day I saw Chock's bald head come bobbing my way as he rode that little cart. He stopped and we had a somehow related conversation about what I wanted to do with my life and about a time some angel visited Chock while he was sick (I don't know if I was more surprised that Chock believed in angels or that an angel actually came to stand at that man's bedside). You'd be surprised at the weird, twistedly strange and unbelievable stories I heard in this place.

Anyway, I told Chock I didn't think I'd be able to find the kind of job I wanted around the Sidney area and that I might have to move away to find it. Chock looked at me and said, "Lemme give ya a little piece of advice I learned over the past 35 years of being a mechanic: sometimes you have to create opportunities. You have to make things happen." I took his advice (as I did with ANY piece of advice I received in that facility) with a large grain of salt.

This past week I've struggled with feeling unfulfilled at my job at the church. I don't think I've been used to my full potential or that I've accomplished a lot since I've been there. This is because I've been somewhat passive in my role in the congregation because I don't want to come across as "the new, young, non-Mennonite pastoral intern who's trying to impose his will on us."Just for clarification, I was assured that my being young and non-Mennonite was not an issue. But in the midst of this struggle I remembered Chock's words: sometimes you have to create opportunities. That's exactly what I need to do. I need to stop waiting for opportunities to come to me. I need to take initiative, do new things, let go of my fear of disappointing people and start taking advantage of the position in which I find myself.

I would never have guessed that I would one day blog about something Chock said. Most things that came out of his mouth would burn the ears off of those who heard them and probably leave smoke wafting from the eye sockets of anyone who read them. But alas, this is what I love about my experience in the factory: amidst so much stuff that is unwholesome and unlovable, it's still possible to find goodness and truth. I will be forever challenged and encouraged to create opportunities in my life thanks to wisdom from the least-expected and most dubious source: good ol' Chock.

Midwest Country Boy...

It's been exactly one month and four days since I moved to Pittsburgh, and my experience so far has been wonderful. I really enjoy my job at Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, my housemates are wonderful people, the city is awesome, PULSE is a really cool organization....oh, and my girlfriend lives less than a half mile from my house (which is great). So life is good! This weekend though I realized that I do miss the country; I miss bean fields, corn fields, and being able to look out across ten miles of land dotted with forests and church steeples. This realization came to me as I drove across Ohio to visit my friends at Bluffton University.

This weekend was homecoming weekend for Bluffton so I decided I would go see the homecoming game and reconnect with my friends. It was absolutely wonderful. I didn't realize how much I miss the really cool people at Bluffton University, and I enjoyed listening to them tell about their studies and involvement this year. Not only did I have a chance to catch up with current students, but also friends with whom I graduated. That was just as great! I love hearing about what people are doing after graduation.

Roomies for life

Among the people I was able to see was my old roommate, Nate Stroud. What a guy! He was a senior representative on the homecoming court this weekend. I stayed with him in his room...just like old times, and it was nice to reminisce about those nights where he literally scared the crap out me with his outbursts in his sleep. Yes, Nate was a sleep talker...sometimes in English, sometimes in gibberish, and occasionally in French. No matter which language came out though, it never ceased to give me a jolt and wake me up. Good times.  

I just want to take a moment to encourage the few of you who read this blog to never take for granted the relationships you have with other people. There are those people in your life who you make a connection with who end up being a part of who you are. This doesn't have to be in a romantic sense; it's simply those individuals who you care about. Those people who you can be separated from for a period of time and when you finally meet again you experience one of the warmest and joyous feelings by being in their presence. I felt that a few times this weekend. Don't ever neglect or take for granted the primacy of relationships. 

I definitely was reminded of how important relationships are this past weekend, but I also came to realize and embrace the fact about myself that I'm a Midwest country boy at heart. I love the city...I love being in Pittsburgh; but my goodness, I've never been so happy to see a corn field in my entire life. So here's to a good weekend of spending time with old friends, weary driving, and Midwest lullabies (I should write a song about that). 

This Past Weekend and Such

This past Sunday could most accurately be described as my initiation as pastoral intern at PMC. I began teaching my adult Sunday school class and delivered my first sermon. It was taken out of the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians and was entitled "Fulfilling Our Purpose to Achieve Community". It seemed to go well overall, and if you would like to see my notes on it then click here (hopefully this link works).

So I'm very much enjoying my time here in Pittsburgh. This city specifically has an interesting dynamic because it has all the really neat opportunities and venues that a big city has, but there's still the ability to feel at home in a smaller community. Pittsburgh is arranged in neighborhoods; there's roughly 90 of them from what I understand, so it's easy to establish yourself in a neighborhood and really feel at home there. Plus, I just like the city. It's different than what I'm used to. And there's so much potential and opportunity to do good things here in terms of what I would call my life mission: trying to make a difference by doing good to others, letting others make a difference in my life, and living according to my Christian values. It seems kind of early to say right now, but I could honestly see myself being happy here for a while (whatever time frame describes a "while" I'm not sure).

Dining Room Table

Our house, which started out a little rough, is beginning to find its niche as our home. I thought I would share a few pictures. Pictures are good...but I need to develop the habit of taking them more often.

My Room

                                         

                             




Also, Joey and I decided to make use of a stale loaf of bread tonight by making bread pudding. We really didn't know what we were doing, but we found a recipe online and went to town with it - making up measurements and throwing in whatever ingredients we thought would be good. It turned out to be delicious.

Finally, here are my fellow PULSErs on the day we went to see a Pirates game a couple weeks ago. Such a good group of people :)

                                        

Music on the Porch

The church at which I work - Pittsburgh Mennonite Church - has an annual retreat which I attended this weekend. It was a combination of lots of food, music, games, camp fires, workshops, old men snoring obnoxiously, and most importantly meeting lots of new people and building relationships. Oh, and there were handfuls of young children running around which made me seriously question whether I ever want to have youngsters of my own. Engaging in all the activities at the retreat was somewhat exhausting, but I'm pleased to have been able to fellowship with my new church congregation and get to know some of them better.

I arrived home from the retreat this afternoon around 2 pm ready to take a nap (I'm usually pretty religious about Sunday afternoon naps) but quickly became engaged in a number of activities. I folded laundry, put together a compost receptacle, chopped and raked weeds in the backyard, stopped up a pesky groundhog hole, and grocery shopped. Anyone who knows me would understand the deep satisfaction I felt after  accomplishing such a list of tasks (and if you didn't already know that about me, then you do now!).

The culmination of my weekend occurred this evening on our front porch where my housemate, Joey, and I played music for a while. We started out playing alone, but after our second song we heard shouting and applause from our neighbors who had, unbeknownst to us, been listening. It was cool to exchange a few words with some of them. Everyone seems really nice and I hope we can spend some more time with our neighbors in the future. It's an interesting dynamic being four young white kids living in the midst of a black community, but it's good. People are cool. People have lots of stories. People are different than you. People teach one another, challenge one another, help one another, and love one another. I continue to have these neat experiences that make me excited for the next ten months and draw me closer to falling in love with this city, embracing all of its potential and opportunity.

An Ecumenical Weekend

Ecumenism means something along the lines of promoting unity and understanding among churches and denominations; perhaps working towards a worldwide church. I chose this word to describe my weekend because I was able to participate in two different religious experiences. Saturday afternoon I attended St. Lawrence O'Toole, a Catholic parish located a couple blocks from my house, and today I attended the church at which I work, Pittsburgh Mennonite Church.

I've never experienced a Catholic mass before and I was pretty excited to go with my housemate, Sarah. Here are a few observations and reflections:

1. The pianist played her small upright piano like she was playing a concert grand, and mixed with her sister's obnoxiously loud, pitchy singing it was quite entertaining.
2. This really cool Benedictine monk gave the homily, but unfortunately I couldn't understand what he was saying because of his mumbling, the poor acoustics and outdated sound system.
3. I really liked the liturgy that was incorporated throughout the service. Liturgy is good because it accurately, thoughtfully and creatively articulates the theology about which it speaks.

If I had the chance to attend a Catholic mass again I would. I enjoy worshipping with different congregations and seeing how they do things when it comes to church. And Catholicism isn't a bad thing. One of my pet peeves is listening to Christians talk negatively about Catholicism. They're both Christian. They both have their origins in the catholic church that existed prior to the Reformations.

Today I attended a Mennonite service (which I'm admittedly more familiar with), and it was interesting because today is 9/11. The service was dedicated to the remembrance of and lamenting for those who lost their lives ten years ago and their families. Again, a decent amount of litany was used and we sang a number of good songs (which is always good because Mennonites sing together very well). The service was definitely presented from a non-violent, anti-war position that advocated peace making through non-violent means. And the focus of one of the reflections on 9/11 given was, "[As a county] We turned to the flag instead of the cross." I understand the thought behind this quote, but I can easily see how it could be disagreeable with someone not familiar with the Mennonite peace tradition and strong belief in separation of church and state.

Both services had interesting qualities and elements of worship. I enjoyed my experience at both, and I strongly advocate the practice of worshipping with different congregations. It's always an enlightening experience, and, I would say, a good practice.

Hello Pittsburgh!

A week and three days ago I initiated the next step in my life's journey. With our vehicles packed mom, Mike and I tiresomely made our way across the state of Ohio towards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I say tiresomely because a surprise basement flood the previous night had demanded our attention until 2 am. Despite this inconvenience we safely made it to my new home in the Garfield neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

As we approached the house, the looks on my parents' faces could best be described as leery, slightly worried, and "son, are you sure you want us to leave you here?" The house had been renovated over the previous few weeks to move in and was barely finished in time for its new tenants. The inside of the house proved to be more promising than the somewhat dilapidated external appearance though, and for this I was thankful...for the sakes of my parents. We moved my possessions into my upstairs bedroom, went to grab an overdue lunch, and said our goodbyes.

I guess I could continue with a really long narrative, but I should probably just cut to the chase for brevity's sake. What am I doing in Pittsburgh? I'm doing non-profit work through an organization called PULSE which stands for Pittsburgh Urban Leadership and Service Experience. There are two components to this program. One in living in intentional community with other participants in the program and the other is doing work at a non-profit organization. Both of these components seek to cultivate a community of young servant leaders to transform Pittsburgh. Instead of seeing the city in a way that focuses on its flaws and what it is not, PULSE encourages its participants to see the city in a way that emphasizes its potential and what it can be when people work together to bring peace and hope to their surrounding communities. I'm drawn to this mission because it closely relates to my own outlook on life which is to learn to see the good in the places and people around me. I'm sure this theme will appear again in later posts.

There are twelve PULSErs in the program this year - eight living together in one house and four in the other. I live in the four person house and I love my three housemates, Sara, Joey, and Jenny. All twelve participants are really cool people, but I'll be getting to know those three individuals particularly well since I'll be living with them. The four of us come from diverse religious backgrounds: Sara was raised Catholic, Joey is Jewish, Jenny is Mennonite, and I was raised in the Church of God (though people say I should be Mennonite since I studied Mennonite history and theology). But this diversity makes for really interesting and enlightening religious conversations. We also all enjoy playing music. Particularly Joey and me. So far the four of us have worked really well together and I'm looking forward to getting to know them through our experiences this coming year.

The non-profit job that I have is at Pittsburgh Mennonite Church where I am the pastoral intern. My first day was yesterday and it went very well. I'll be working with them in the areas of worship leading, music, preaching, teaching and community outreach. I'm very excited to see what things I learn through working with this congregation over the next year.

When I came to Pittsburgh I was slightly nervous about what I was getting into. Would I like the city? Would I get along with my housemates? What would my internship be like? Would I be happy? After being here a week and learning about the city and meeting my housemates that nervousness was alleviated. I really like Pittsburgh. There are so many opportunities to do good things within the city; so many good people to meet; and so much potential. I know this is going to be a great learning and life building experience for me. I also have this philosophy that no matter what you're doing or where you are, you are the deciding factor in how much you learn from and enjoy that particular experience. In other words, your attitude and outlook make the experience; not vice versa. So I'm positive about my upcoming year in Pittsburgh! It's going to be great and I'm going to make the most of whatever comes my way. Practicing love, sowing peace, showing compassion and spreading hope will be key to this. To steal a line from the one of the songs of my favorite band, "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Here are some websites I encourage you to check out:
http://www.pulsepittsburgh.org/
http://pittsburghmennonite.org/