weekend round-up: community

this weekend, i felt really blessed by our little church community. when i think about our church, and that fact that we've stuck around, it's kind of funny. to someone on the outside, our group probably doesn't make a lot of sense. but it just fits so well into our lives right now and is always a blessing to be around our r street peeps.

for about two years after we moved to little rock, i didn't feel like jason and i had a place together. he had is friends, i had mine, and we crossed over to each others sides - but we didn't have a group. and that was hard.  but somehow, without really looking, we stumbled onto r street. and for whatever reason, we stuck around. and i'm so glad we did. because now we have "our" group, we have "our" friends, a place for our family to be. if you had asked me two years ago what kind of a group i would be looking for, i don't think this would be it. (haha - sorry guys :-p) but - i am so thankful and blessed to be a part of this little community now. 

once a month, we try to do a service sunday - taking our church service somewhere and serving in some say. we've sorted clothes at a homeless shelter, we've raked leaves at a women's home, we've built wheelchair ramps. it's always a fun time and a good reminder to be doing as a community, not just being.

this last sunday, we held a church service at a nursing home here in little rock where the mother of one of our church members lives. and it was really neat. in the middle of singing "come thou fount", i looked around at our little rag-tag group and was so thankful for where we are, so thankful for these people in our lives, so thankful for the way that we have weaseled ourselves into each other lives. after leaving palestine, i was not confident that we would find another place like kinestish*, but this church family is turning out to be a pretty amazing addition to our life. it's the perfect place for our family at this point in our life.

i don't have anything really profound to say about them, other than i am thankful that they are in our life. i'm thankful for the way they love our family - me, jason, and the kids. i'm thankful for the way we love them. i'm thankful for the way we are in each others lives and business. i'm thankful that we can pray together, share communion, go out to lunch, and share a beer. i'm thankful that they have invited us into their lives and that we have invited them into ours.

real community is a great thing. and i love ours.  

super grateful for these people.

*a made up arabic word meaning "not church", which we used to describe our little group that met together, shared a meal, read the Bible, prayed together, and just did life together.