jamal

well... guess what kids? we just added another roommate to the roster! i thought this would be a great opportunity to tell you a little bit about each person i'm going to be living with! so allow me to introduce you to the hamline house.

this is seth mccoy. he's our fearless leader. though he won't be living in the house, he's the pastor over resonate which is the ministry that we're directly connected to and very much a part of! he'll be spending lot's of time hanging with us at the house and providing guidance as we begin taking steps forward in this whole process.






this is natalie potts. she's my co-worker at woodland hills and she'll also be a co-leader with me at our community house! we've been able to spend some time getting to know each other over the past 5 months and she is absolutely awesome! we get along great and we've already had some great practice working together!




this is ricky hampton. oh my goodness... i love this guy. we've been able to spend some time talking and he's got quite a story to tell! he's very humble and easy to get along with... this is pretty much the only picture i could find of him... his eyes are shut... so he's probably praying for the food he's about to eat...













this is sarah wininger. she will be joining us for the summer and maybe a bit longer after that and we are so pumped to have her come stay with us! she has a great big huge heart and the Lord has put a passion in her to minister in india! God has big things in store for this woman.













this is jamal rogers. he's our newest addition to the house and he's quite a character! this dude has CHARISMA! ha... as you can see from the picture... i'm really excited that jamal has decided to join us in our little journey! he's definitely gonna bring a new "energy" to the house!















this is heather karsikas. we've been friends for a super long time now and let me tell you... she is absolutely wonderful! God has already done so many amazing things in her life and i can't wait to see what comes next!














so there you have it... my little band of house-mates... it's one week till our adventure begins...

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

something new

hey folks... sorry it's been such a long time since i've posted or visited your blogs... God has me on a little journey right now that has led me away from the computer screen... i hope none of you feel too neglected :)

the title of this post is "something new"... but it's probably nothing new to any of you! ha... it's all i've been able to write or think about lately... i've got house on the brain. but God is doing something new... and it's about to begin... and i'm so incredibly excited! i can't help but share all the wonderful details with all of you! there have been a few changes since i last wrote... we have a slightly different roster for the house... as of right now we have 4 committed to live in the house for a year and 1 who's planning on living with us for the summer... the 4 are natalie potts, heather karsikas, ricky hampton, and myself... the 1 is sarah wininger. to my sadness, angie fab decided after much thought & prayer that this just wasn't the right time for her to make this move... BUT she's agreed to drop in on occasion and make us a home cooked italian meal! yummy! 2 of us are currently looking for jobs, so if you could please be praying that God would provide them with jobs, we'd greatly appreciate it! we're all set to sign the lease on friday, june 6th! and then we can start moving our stuff in!!! we just had our first meeting last night and it lasted almost 5 hours! ha... there is so much to go over! we're getting together again this week to continue planning... it's a very exciting time for all of us. i think we're gonna start a house blog to keep people posted on how things in the house are going from everyone's different perspective, so be looking for that soon! thank you all so much for all your prayer & support these past couple months... i couldn't be doing this without you.

more to come soon.

read this

this was posted by someone on staff at resonate.... and what can i say... it resonated with me :)

committed

Last week in HouseGroups, we read the last story in God’s great saga! It was called Epilogue: The Church.

It was about how Jesus’ death was the start of something new… and that something came to be called the Church. It was a new way of living. The story describes the people as being deeply committed to God and to each other. They shared everything they had. They spent their time praying, learning God’s ways together, and helping anyone who was in need. And they did all of this “with great joy and generosity,” the story says.

These are the rhythms that marked the life of the early Church. This is how people who were directly impacted by Jesus chose to live. I often think about the way the first Christians were committed to each other. What does that even mean? Besides the idea of marriage, it’s hard for me to formulate a picture of what people committed to each other looks like. That’s weird, right? Isn’t the normal thing for us to be committed to our families and spouses?

Which leads me to another question: did Jesus really come to make us a new family, or didn’t he? Does Jesus still call us to define “family” along the same lines that we knew growing up? Or does Jesus call us to a new definition? One that includes more than the people we’re related to or have created children with?

After all, blood is what defines our standard concept of what family is. And because Jesus poured out his blood, and we can partake of it every week (in communion), and everyday as we choose to live the kind of life that he did. Partaking of Jesus’ blood gains us entrance into this new family, where no one is left out. The whole family celebrates, suffers, and practices faithfulness to God and his ways together. And we are all committed to each other with a love that promises to remain in relationship, to struggle through conflict, and to share with the other their joys and sorrows.

Together we can represent a whole picture of the Kingdom of God. Together we can remain the bride of Christ, living like our husband has come back already. With the way we treat one another, we beckon others into this joyful, cross-carrying period of waiting as we try to follow Jesus and show the world what love looks like.

here we go

hey fam. i thought it was time for another update... sorry this is kinda turning into a missional house blog... but it's all i can think about right now! :)

so as of today, we officially have 5 people 100% committed to live in the house! can you believe it?! ha... it's crazy to me how quickly this has all come together! we have natalie potts, ricky hampton, angie fabulous (carroccio), heather karsikas, and myself! i believe with all my heart that these are the people that God has called to live in this house. i have absolutely no doubts about this.

this saturday we're all heading back to the house again to turn in our applications, discuss/negotiate prices, and give the house one more walk through with everyone there. we're planning on moving in mid june! i am ridiculously excited about this! it feels like God has given us the keys to a car and now we just have to get in and go!

i'm praying like crazy about all of this... i know that there are probably all kinds of mistakes that we've already made but just aren't aware of yet... and many more to come... but i'm praying that God would be preparing us for all the obstacles we're going to face... that we would be as thoughtful and careful about all of this as humanly possible... that we would be ready to love others and each other the way that God has called us to... that we would be ready to share... to sacrifice... there is still so much planning that needs to happen.. so i'm asking all of you to please please pray! the only way we're going to be able to succeed is if we have God's help... people coming around us... praying for us...

i thank God for what He's doing right now... He's SO GOOD!!!

ummm... one more thing... if you think of it... pray for my momma... she's very sick right now and in a lot of pain... she can barely walk... i haven't ever seen her this sick before. so please pray that God would heal her. We know He can do it!

thank you fam!