If there’s anything I’ve been blown away by in the past few months it is the presence of history in how we currently live– the recognition (partial, at least) of the ways in which our country has worked that has moved us to the place we are now, so dependent on consumerism and capitalism. The lines between social injustices, racism and white supremacy, sexism, mistreatment of the land, poverty, are all being woven together into this great tapestry of history.

One of the things I like to think I’m striving for in my life is wholeness. In being able to look at these histories we have, especially in this country, but definitely extending beyond these borders, the recognition that it is becoming more clear, more plausible and practical to me to believe in the ability to live in such a way that I have the means and agency to choose the good life. I feel it is becoming a little more clear to me how my faith looks in flesh. That is a exciting thing, but also a frightening thing. I’m finding more and more how difficult it is to stand in opposition to many of this inhumane systems we’ve constructed in our society. I’m finding that sometimes it’s easier not to challenge a racist joke, or speak up against misogynistic language, or buy food in ways that supports animal and human dignity. The more I learn about these histories, the more I learn about myself and how much I fail, how much I don’t live up to these realities of freedom and justice I desire, how much my own brokenness breaks the world.

It is language many Christians have gotten away from, that of collective sin, but if anything, living in community certainly magnifies my faults and reveals the ways in which how I live affects those around me.

In the face of  so much knowledge and information about the brokenness of the world, it is often easy to become hopeless, to think the problems are too big to solve, but I’m beginning to see that approach is just another way to keep us fragmented people. One of the reasons I like Thomas Merton so much is that he has such a strong gaze on his own heart that enables him to see what’s wrong with the world, and then find it in himself and realize how much he is the problem. That is kind of what I’ve begun to see, though in no way am I as faithful or observant to life as brother Merton was. But it is here that I would like to speak of the place of community.

I always like to say that community, while meaning a lot of things, particularly has to do with being in relationship with people who know me well enough to hold me accountable for who I say I am called to be, and vice versa. In living with 5 other college students, it’s inevitable that late night conversations delving into how we can solve the worlds problems, or at least in pointing out the worlds problems, will occur. But what’s also inevitable, or maybe should be, is the recognition of the problems within our own community, the brokenness and disconnectedness that exists here among us, and the ease with which we can look outside our door and find people and systems who are failing, but the great difficulty it is to confront each other with the realities of our fears and hurts and disappointments. It is the easy thing to do to look smart and wax poetic about how certain situations have come to be and how it is our Christian responsibility to work to challenge injustice (and it certainly is!), but it is the difficult thing to see that changing anything in our world can’t come out of a place that is secretly holding onto the same vices that it rails against. I can’t be as effective in serving anyone outside of the walls of my home if I’m not able to serve those in my home, first. And I’m not able to effectively serve anyone in my home if I’m not able to really see myself and my brokenness and really let the Lord begin to work on me. Really begin to devote myself to disciplines that promote and cultivate a hospitable and peaceable person.

In some ways I feel like this was a bit unguided in movement, but maybe that’s why it’s title “In search of…”. With all the insights and mind-blowing realizations I’ve had in the past few months, I still don’t know where exactly that’s taking me, though I’m getting a clearer picture of what is required of me and what life might look like.

-Amaryah

In other news, I just started tutoring at the Edgehill Public Library. I helped two girls with their homework on Monday afternoon and then came home. I feel good about helping with homework, though I always wonder how good I am at explaining and clarifying areas where they might be confused. I’m sure I’ll hit my stride soon enough.

What’s really exciting is that we’re hosting Nakeisha Alexis-Baker over for dinner tonight. She’s founder of Jesus Radicals, a Christian Anarchy organization, and is one of the speakers for Belmont’s spiritual emphasis week. I’m super excited, especially because she’s a woman of color and I always find it neat to see and hear the radical ways in which WOC are living out their lives. And then, tomorrow, she’s speaking again in the morning and in the evening and we’re hosting a discussion after her talk in the evening which I’m excited about. Our first discussion night went really well, and we even had members of another community house nearby come over, and we’ve had a lot more interest from other people who want to come over as well. I’m really expecting some great things this week.

Full of ups and downs, still very fresh and new, eye-opening, difficult, and loads of fun.

So we’ve lived together now for a few weeks. We had our first family night, which is when we hang out together and eat and talk about our lives together, etc., and it was awesome. We played pictionary and my team (Me-Amaryah, Aaron, Elli, and Jameson) won. Whoop! What made it even more awesome is that we played on the walls with chalk. So, yeah, goodtimes.

I start working at the Edgehill Public Library Wednesday. Exciting!

So, what have I been up to this summer? Just this afternoon I got back from Jesus People USA where I lived for a month. I didn’t know anybody when I first arrived, except for the few people that I had met when I went up with University Ministries over spring break last year, so there were many, many people to meet. The folks there are amazing, and I miss them already. I washed a lot of dishes while I was there. 450 people living together=lots of dishes. Also, the parents never cleaned up after their kids, so I cleaned up a few “cheerio-bombs,” or so that’s what I called them. But it was an experience staying there, to say the least. One neat thing that I did was go out with a group of folks on an outing called “Manna.” Manna is basically a free picnic, open to anybody and everybody, where you share food together and build community. It’s especially neat when homeless folks show up because it’s not another “food-handout” type environment, it’s a picnic where everyone gathers to have fun. It was started out in California, and now the founder, Paul, lives at JPUSA. The food from the Chicago chapter of Manna comes mostly from Jesus People’s stash of leftovers, and sometimes is supplemented by just expired dumpster diving foods. I hear Trader Joe’s throws out a lot of good food. Anyways, point of me telling you that is I am thinking and praying about maybe starting a chapter of Manna in Nashville. Granted, I haven’t talked to Micah about it, but it’s something in the works. Maybe I can work less hours at the Campus for Human Development and also start this gathering? Who knows, but it’s something that I think I would love doing. Maybe see if I could get some of the Cafeteria’s left-overs or something, and have it where Belmont students could come, and also where some hungry folks off the streets could come and eat as well, all as one big partying-picnic-community. Tell me if this sounds like a complicated and bad idea, because I am prone to those.

Anyways, I haven’t had too much time to think about all the experiences I had in Chicago because I haven’t been back for too long yet. But, I look forward to telling you guys about it, and hearing about your summers too! I can’t wait to move in. I am excited about having bunked beds with Austin. My room-mate last year wouldn’t let me bunk beds with him. It was a bummer. I am looking forward to eating with everybody, and praying and worshipping together, and getting to know all of you, brothers and sisters.

The rest of my summer? I am going backpacking with my brother and a few other friends in North Carolina for five or so days, and then celebrating my brother’s birthday, and then sticking anxiously around the house for a few days while preparing to come to Nashville and move in.

These are the books i’ve ben reading this summer- The Kingdom of God is Within You -Leo Tolstoy (not quite done yet, working on it)

Francis: The Journey and the Dream- Murray Bodo

The Lessons of St. Francis: How to bring Simplicity and Spirituality Into Your Daily Life – John Michael Talbot and Steve Rabey

Armageddon in Retrospect, The Sirens of Titan, and Timequake- all by Kurt Vonnegut

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance- Robert M. Pirsig

Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini

I can’t wait to move in with you people!

peace and good,

Aaron.

-Amaryah

So, to answer the question, ”what have I been up to?”

Well, this summer has been crazy and has flown by so fast (I can’t believe there’s just less than a month left!).

I have been working with Center for Student Missions since May. CSM is a non-profit organization that acts a sort of mediator and host for youth/college mission teams that come to different cities for mission trips. We have locations in 10 cities around the country, but I’m working at the one in Nashville (of course).

I live in the bottom floor of a church in East Nashville with 5 other “city hosts” (who are all incredible individuals). We have 3-6 youth groups with us at any given time, and they stay on the top floor of the church. They normally stay for 5-6 days during which we are in charge of getting them to the different ministry sites, working with them at the sites, and being the mediator with the sites and then going over their experiences in the form of a “debrief” every night. Each of us have a site that we work with every afternoon (mine is the Antioch Boys and Girls club), and then we have about 15 other sites that we rotate through during our mornings. It’s been really cool getting build relationships with the folks at each of the sites.

It has been an incredible experience working with the youth, helping to teach them about the city while at the same time learning about the city with them. God has been teaching me so much through the kids, the other staff, and the folks that we meet at the ministry sites and on the streets.

It is frusterating and tiring at times, but seeing the ways Christ has moved in each kid over the course of each week, and hearing the things that they have to say during our debrief times constantly remind me of what Christ can do.

But besides that, I have been doing alot of reading and coffee shop sitting with my fellow hosts (which is one of my favorite pasttimes).

Here’s the books I’ve been reading this summer:

Theirs is the Kingdom-Robert Lupton

Practical Justice-Kevin Blue

Crazy Love-Francis Chan

The End of Reason-Ravi Zacharias

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger-Ron Sider

Desiring God-John Piper

I’ve also discovered alot of sermons/messages on youtube. John Piper, Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll etc. good stuff =)

The second question was “what am I excited about in this coming year?”

Shoot. Everything?

I can’t wait to start living with you guys at the house. I’m really excited to see what Christ is going to do with it. My passion is to be a means by which our campus can get involved with the Nashville community and I think the House and all of us in it will be a great way to help with that. I’m excited for all the conversations that are going to be had, the dinners shared, and the growth that Christ is no doubt going to cause in all of us.

I’m also excited about my classes. It’s cool actually being able to take classes that I want to take =)

Also, I will be continuing with CSM as my service year internship, so I can’t wait to see what will happen there. Part of my internship with CSM will entail being a consistent face at one of the ministry sites, so that will be cool getting to continue on with some of the relationships i’ve been building there.

Anyway, it’s been an awesome summer and I’m ready for an awesome Fall semester with you guys!

-Austin

Glad that we have this space to catch up, and I hope everyone is using it.  Here are a couple of updates:

1.  Soon, you will be receiving your email invites to Week 1, Belmont’s student leadership training.  Per our original conversations about being in the program, you guys need to be present for this–there will be some cool stuff this year (I’m on the planning committee), and rumour has it that a certain director of outreach might be giving a keynote address about the mission of the university and the mission of God.

2.  In light of recent revelations about the Rutba house, and in consideration of what they’re facing there, I propose that we postpone that trip indefinitely, perhaps until Spring.

3.  Mark your calenders for the last weekend of August–I’ve arranged an intense urban immersion experience for you all with our friends over at Center for Student Missions (Hi Austin!).  This is a free experience for you guys–Belmont is picking up the tab

4.  I have word from Plant Ops that the 15th Ave House will be finished on or near August 1.  I”ll believe it when I see it, but I’m hopeful.

That’s it for now.  I’ve had a busy summer, and I look forward to being with you all this year!

Micah

my summer started so: i left belmont with more boxes than i needed and dropped most of it off at my grandparents’ house in murfreesboro, and with a considerably smaller load, headed back to memphis. i became steak n’ shake’s go-to girl and worked enough hours to clock overtime every week. but come june, i packed a duffle bag with a few pairs of clothes and a collection of books and went on a cross-country road trip with my two best friends. it was a lovely adventure; i’d do it again in a heartbeat. i fell in love with portland (well, the northwest in general) and i’m determined to live there some day. i got back a few days ago and now i’m spending my days wasting time, playing banjo, and not doing anything for anyone (except serving them trans fat at steak n shake). Christian points for that? 

i’m excited for the harry potter movie, and i’m excited for the jesus radicals conference in memphis (p.s. anyone wanna go?) and an acoustic tour of the weiss family (mewithoutYou) and the psalters in memphis AND nashville (… anyone wanna go to that, too?)

i finished these books:

the kingdom of G-d is within you – tolstoy

the life and words of st. francis of assisi – ira peck

a generous orthodoxy – brian mclaren

blue like jazz – donald miller

the purity myth – jessica valenti

and the harry potter books 1-3.

and i am now currently reading a book of rumi poetry, letters between ghandi & tolstoy, and a book called piety & politics.

also, i’m really pumped for the harry potter movie.

i don’t have much else to say. i hope y’all are doing well, and i can’t wait to see you in august! have a lovely summer.

1. What have you been up to?

and

2. What are you excited about in this coming year?

To answer the first, my summer has seemed like a whirlwind of activity. I went home in May and watched one of my older brother’s get married then after a couple of weeks at home I hightailed it back to Nashville for summer orientation working on the 2009 Summer Staff for Towering Traditions. Over the course of three weeks I saw hundreds of new students every session, met more than a few of them and their parents and families, had some really great conversations and also got to hang out with a really great bunch of people on staff with me. Well, that’s been done for about  a week and some change now and I’ve been reading through the Harry Potter series once again in preparation for the 1st part of the 6th move, and I’ve also been reading a lot of other books in addition. Some of my favorite books I’ve read over this summer have been:

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. This book basically deals with liberatory practices of education and empowerment. Amazing book.

The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry. I just started this one a couple of days ago and basically Berry tackles how he as a white man has been affected by racism and the hidden wound that comes with being a part of the dominant race in society.

Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life by bell hooks and Cornel West. Two of the most prominent black intellectuals have some dialogues and some interviews dealing with black intellectualism and especially the relationships between black male and female intellectuals.

What Are People For? by Wendell Berry. If you can’t tell, there’s a recurring theme on this list as far as authors go. This book is basically a collection of essays dealing with the human person and purpose.

Aside from these, I’m reading a lot of internet articles on Urban Gardening and community development (I ordered 2 Eco-Soul cookbooks this week) as well as my usual round of blogs dealing with racism and sexism and other social ills.

As far as what I’m excited about for next year, I’m not really sure to begin.

One thing I’m excited about is where I’m doing my community service which is the Edgehill Public Library. One of the 15th Ave alums was doing some work down there last year and as my heart is in books and literature, it seemed like a great fit and carrying on of the torch going down there and doing some homework help once school starts back up. I’m especially excited to get to know Beverly who’s been working at the Edgehill Library for 23 years and in the Public Library system for 37! Talk about endurance. I’m excited to give a lot, but mostly I’m excited to learn about how to promote and encourage space for education and love of literature, in the Edgehill community.

And of course, I’m excited to live with everybody and begin to build a community amongst ourselves, which I think is just as important and just as imperative to doing something productive and impactful as being out in the greater Nashville community. I’m pretty sure it will be really rough a lot of the time, but I’m also excited about everyone who’s living in the house and who’s a part of the 15th Ave Community and creating a space where everyone has the opportunity and the freedom to truly exist and be themselves. I think there’s a lot of potential for us to do a lot of good, starting with ourselves.