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/