thankfulness

so yesterday was thanksgiving.

i'm sure most people experienced something similar to what i did.

lot's of food. lot's of family.

ha... i actually was fortunate enough to have not one, not two, but THREE thanksgiving feasts this year! tuesday, wednesday and thursday were all celebrations of this holiday called thanksgiving. and i know it's kind of lame to bring up things that you're thankful for just because it's thanksgiving, but as a christian living in america, i'll take all the reminders i can get!

what i'm most thankful for this year is something called New Family. as i gathered together with various friends & family to celebrate & give thanks... i realized that all of these people are my family. and not just in a corny way like, "we're so close it feels like we're family."

no.

God has set it up in a way that when we embrace the kingdom & manna way of life and say together that God is our only king, then we become New Family. we're no longer divided by race, age, gender or anything else in our world that separates us. we are a new family.

at our first thanksgiving gathering, my friend nate invited a man named bill to join us for dinner. nate met bill at a coffee shop a few weeks ago. he was taking his dog moses for a walk & just started up a conversation with him... as bill knelt down to pet moses, he began to weep. bill had no plans for thanksgiving, so he accepted nate's invitation. we all sat down and began sharing what we were thankful for... and when it got to bill he said, "i'm not thankful for much... i'm thankful for nate... and for all of you. i don't have anybody to celebrate thanksgiving with, so you're all my family."

back in action

hey family in blog land. it's been too long my friends! i THINK i might finally have some time to dedicate here. things are still just as busy as ever... but i think something i've been realizing lately is that the hamline house has a story to tell. and people need to hear about it. last weekend we took a trip to YWAM in Weyerhaeuser WI to share about intentional community. it was pretty cool because it was the first time we've ever had a platform like that to tell our story. and it seemed to impact everyone who heard it... maybe not in a shocking visible way... but i believe that our story pushes people towards community... towards sharing & simplicity... and my hope is that our story would push people towards the heart of Jesus.

there are a lot of things that have happened since i last updated you all... some of you may know already, but about 2 months ago jamal moved out of the house. there are plenty of reasons why we arrived at this decision together, but the important thing is that our relationships were not damaged. this was the best thing for jamal, and for the others in the house.

on a happier note, this month we are preparing for two new additions to the house... greg & zach. greg is our friend from resonate who we've had several conversations with about moving in and what that would mean & look like and we all have agreed that the next step is for him to come try out a month & practice living with us. zach is our other friend who we actually haven't even met yet! ha... he's going to stay with us over thanksgiving weekend and we'll spend some time with him going over our house values & way of life... if that all goes well, we'll have a full house by january! we are all very excited to see what God does!

more updates to come soon!

dance dance revolution

YAY!!! finally a camera in the house! (apparently we've had two the whole time already...) ha... so this will be a really quick post... but i wanted to show you guys some pictures from last week. our friends joey & pearl got married last weekend and on thursday we had a prayer & worship night at the hammy house... we spent some time singing to God and then praying for joey & pearl's wedding... and it was awesome! but then all of a sudden when we were done... we had a CRAZY DANCE PARTY in our living room... it was quite special... here are some pics...

hamline house blog

alright peeps... as most of you know, the hamline house blog site is pretty much lame-sauce. ha... more like the hamlame house blog site.... yeah... we've kind of collectively realized that we're not quite at a point where we can have people consistently posting on that site yet... but coming into the school year, we're going to get a rotation going for house peeps to post once a week... i'll let you know when it's time to start checking it out... so look forward to that! until then... keep checkin' here for more hamline house updates :)

thanks for your patience everyone... (angie)

moons over my hamline house

not the best picture ever... but we don't really have a camera at our place... so group pictures are hard to come by... this one is from my camera phone. i promised an update with pictures and trust me, that is coming soon! but for now, this will have to do :)

it's amazing to me how fast the time is going by in this house... we've already been here for a little over two months! so much has happened and i feel like i've filled you all in on so little! here are a few things that have happened since we moved in...

relational tithe - this is something that our friend joey cavalier started up right when we moved into the hamline house & it involves people from our community at resonate. we all give money to this account on a monthly basis... approximately 3% of our income... then joey, myself and heather all spend time together praying to God... asking how He wants us to bless others who's needs are not being met. we've already been able to help out 4-5 people with their needs including rent & gas money! the relational tithe has contributed about $400 to the hamline house to help with expenses! what a blessing that has been! this month we're planning on helping out a single mom who is working 3 jobs to support her family... i feel so honored to be involved in God's jubilee economics...

community dinners - we have been having community dinners on saturday nights at our home. we spend the day cooking and cleaning... preparing our house for guests... & then we invite our friends, family and neighbors over for a meal and fellowship! this has been so wonderful to be a part of! we've had a different mix of people every time & i think people have really enjoyed getting a taste of what we're doing here & what we're all about.

family nights - every thursday night we have a family night for the peeps living in the house. we kind of have an alternating schedule of events that we do on thursday night which include prayer & worship nights, an hour or two in silence & solitude, spending some social time in our neighborhood with each other, and reading through a book called Manna & Mercy by daniel erlander which i HIGHLY RECOMMEND! it's pretty much set up as a childrens story book... but the content is far from childish.

so yeah... we're here... we are taking steps forward... we're starting to see God work through this community of people living together on purpose... we're bringing the kingdom to each other & experiencing growth in wonderful and painful ways... and this is just the beginning...

so i'm lame at blogging...

dang... just when you think you have this whole blog thing down, reality sets in and shows you just how lame you really are! ha... sorry fam! i know i've been out this whole month... and just after i promised more posts! but life in the house is busier than expected... i guess we're going to have to be intentional about posting more frequently! so... just a quick update on what's happening in my world... i started recording music last week. just one song so far.. but i'm very happy with the quality... i'll have to post it soon so you can all give it a listen! i'm hoping to record more within the next couple months with my dear friend angie fabulous... if all goes well we should have an ep out soon! ha... she already has plans for an album cover & photo shoot! my goodness... things at the hamline house are going well... we just got some new neighbors downstairs... they're taking the unoccupied office space and turning it into a pet grooming shop! ha.. too bad we're not allowed to have pets up here! we also have some new neighbors moving in across the street! our dear friends joey & pearl who will be married this august! they're our friends from resonate and we're really excited to expand our little community! natalie and sarah have been in mississippi this whole past week with a bunch of students from echo & resonate... they spent their time there with the john perkins foundation and it has been quite inspirational to follow their blog... if you're interested in checking it out... here's the link. alright kids... i think that's all i got in me for now... more to come hopefully in the near future.

breath of fresh air

we have internet!!! ha... this makes me so happy! now you can all look forward to new posts from the hamline house blog every week! and you'll probably be hearing from me a bit more frequently too! 3 thumbs up right? :)

ahhhh... i miss all of you! my blog family! how are all of you? i guess if i really wanna find out i'll just have to make a little trip over to your blogs! and now i actually have some time to do that! ummmm... ok, so in my last post i was going through some rough times... ha.. life in community IS all it's cracked up to be... but it's HARD. it takes ridiculous amounts of prayer and patience... which are to things i get to grow in daily. things have started looking up too... natalie and i developed our covenant and weekly structure! since i'm sure you're all dying to know what it is... i thought i'd post it here for you all to see! enjoy :)

Hamline House Values

Simplicity - as community members we commit to living with what we need, not what we want. this requires continual evaluation of our lifestyle. we consider the needs of our local and global neighbors before our own.

Sharing - as community members we commit to sharing our resources with each other so that we may have more to give those in need. we recognize that all we have belongs to God, and then to our brothers and sisters in the house.

Peacemaking - as community members we commit to resolving conflict according to the way prescribed in matthew 18. we commit to extending self-giving love to all people in the same way God does. this includes our enemies. we commit to following the Spirit's leading as we work to heal and restore our broken world.

Work - as community members we recognize work as the dignified activity of helping God provide for human needs. we commit to balancing work inside the home with work outside of the home.

Accountability - as community members we allow one another to lovingly challenge and encourage us to remain faithful to our covenant and to Jesus' kingdom way of life, and we commit to doing the same for each other.

Communication - as community members we commit to speaking truthfully and lovingly to each other. we avoid meaningless talk, half truths, and dishonesty so that we may commit to simplicity in our speech as well.

Leadership - as community members we take ownership of our HouseGroups, taking on leadership roles and offering our time to be spiritual guides for people.

Submission - as community members we recognize the church as Christ's body and humbly submit to it's leadership as we would to Christ. we recognize our tendency to pursue our own self-centered vision rather than God's dream for our community. we commit to support and encourage those God has called to leadership roles among us and to passionately follow the dream that God has called us to as a covenant community.

Freedom - as community members we commit to lifting burdens off of those we meet in our world and to liberating people from poverty and emotional and spiritual deprivation.

Transformation - as community members we commit to the disciplined spiritual life, recognizing God as a God of life and newness. we resist stagnation and encourage growth on the individual and communal level.

Play - as community members we commit to creating times in which we have fun together, fostering an enjoyment of all God's good gifts.

Rest - as community members we commit to times of reflection, both individually and as a community.

New Family - as community members we commit to living as God's new family. this means respectful and loving interaction between genders, ages, races, and any other lines which divide people in our world. we recognize the humanity in us all and welcome strangers with Christ-like hospitality.

and there you have it folks. i feel so blessed to be a part of this house. thank you all for being such a huge support for me through all of this. i got nothing but love for you :)