clear

so did i tell you that i slapped together a cd? i made it on a macbook, but the sound quality actually turned out alright :)

clear is a bunch of songs i wrote to the lord.

here are some of the lyrics...

*clear*

this life so far is beating me down & i can't see anything but the ground i'm walking on.

this life so far is more than i can bare & i can't feel anything but the air i'm breathing in.

and where's the strength that jesus said i'd have?

and where's the saint that jesus says i am?

i can't see things very clear, i need your eyes, i needs your ears to hear.

oh god i need your heart & it's clear to me now.

when things are looking, looking oh so bad, i'm supposed to put on a happy face & pretend that i'm glad, but i'm not glad.

and where's the joy that jesus said i'd have?

and where's the saint that jesus says i am?

*shield*

oh lord, how many are my foes? how many rise up against me? many are saying of me that god will not deliver him.

but you are a shield all around me.

you are a shield all around me.

you are a shield all around me.

you are a shield all around me.

i lay down my head and sleep. i wake because the lord sustains me.

& i won't fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.

arise oh lord, arise.

the lord is my strength & he lifts up my head.

to the lord i cry aloud & he answers me from his holy hill.

i won't fear cause you are with me lord.

funny thing...

mmmmmm... christianne! it's been too long my sister! so glad to hear from you! :)

alright, well now that the tacos have been devoured & everyone has wandered off to bed, i think i can find some more words to share.

i was just reading the last post i wrote on thanksgiving. i remember that thanksgiving quite vividly because of bill. a man who i'd just met through my friend nate. i was moved by the story of how nate met bill & how bill was welcomed into our thanksgiving feast & it really was a beautiful thing.

funny thing...

it's been over a year since that thanksgiving & i haven't seen bill more than 2 times in different random social settings.

tonight, after dinner was over, we had a house discussion about a man named bill. he's been living in a local church for i don't know how long & is apparently going to have to leave the beginning of april. no job. no place to go.

this is where the rubber meets the road kids.

we talk an awful lot around the hamline house. we talk about social justice & peace. we talk about simplicity & sharing. we also talk about hospitality. but practicing these things are COMPLETELY different than talking about them. our first year we had several different folks come stay with us at the hamline house. we had a pretty strong sense that part of what we were called to do was take in folks that needed a place to stay if we had the room. but we soon found out that even though we had physical space in our home, we were lacking in so many other ways. most of the situations led to frustration & confusion shared by everyone involved & ended in relief when it was all over. that's the truth. it looked so good on paper!

yet... i wouldn't take any of it back.

i really feel that we were doing what we felt called to do. we were faced with a choice. someone needs a place to stay & we have extra space. things didn't always go exactly the way we thought they would... but that's life right? sometimes when you stop to lend someone a helping hand, it can put you right in harm's way. it might be safer to just keep walking & not make eye contact. but i suppose we didn't sign up for safe when we decided to follow jesus. did we.

so i ask for your prayers as we consider inviting bill to come live with us. we don't know all the details yet & we're still praying & talking about what it would mean for all of us, but so far, it's unanimous. that would make 7 in the hamline house & 7 in the thomas house. oh yeah, did i mention we started a 2nd house this year? :) more on that another time.

sleepy time. thanks for listening. remember to pray for us if you think of it.

it's been a while...

well kids. i decided it's time to start blogging again. it's been over a year since my last post and SO much has happened in the last year... so much in fact that i've forgotten the art of taking time to write & think & process.

this has always been a great place to process.

things are much different now. when i think about last year, it seems so easy... but while i was in the moment, i remember how hard it was & how difficult things were. we were learning so much. how to share our possessions. how to simplify our lives. how to take care of one another.

i'm about to go cook a delicious taco dinner for my housemates... but later i'll write some.

anyways... here's to new beginnings :)

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)