ye olde holiday season//

it has been one week exactly since i have begun my holiday break. it feels like it has been much longer, which is for better or for worse.

since being on break, i've been to knoxville, TN [to get a ride home from one of my best buddies], waynesville,NC [to be with family], nashville, TN [to feel out of place for the half hour i was there], chicago, IL [to get lost], Holland, MI [to be in one of my best buddy's wedding],and Fort Wayne, IN [to be with unrelated family members].

i really love travelling and seeing places, especially after being in one place for a long time. i have been thinking about how incredibly blessed it is to be able to travel and to see family and friends. my neighbors in camden don't have the luxury to do so. I am trying to cherish every moment i am with folks that i haven't seen in a long time.

it has been really incredible and really different and a time of a different business.

things to know, if you want.

this is what we handed out on BUY NOTHING DAY 2006, thought i'd share the wealth.

honesty.

In the Mission Year program there are nights in which are specifically placed for having people over for dinner and hanging out. My team and I have carved out Thursday night as our decided “hospitality night.” We each have certain weeks where we take initiative and invite different folks from either our neighborhood or our morning community service sites. This past week when Thursday came, no one showed up to our house that we invited, so we decided to take our borrowed, beat van and drive over to the bus stop where we usually hang out and eat donuts with our friends who don’t have permanent homes hang out. Right when we pulled up we saw tons of our friends. We jumped out and asked our friends if they were hungry and wanted to eat. So, about 6 people piled in the van and we scurried back home and ate hamburger helper. I have found a new love for hamburger helper and its ability to bring people together. While eating in the company of cross dressing prostitutes, drug addicts and general down and beat folks, I caught a small glimpse of why Christ hung out with this crew too. There is so much honesty among the broken, there is no need to pretend you are something you are not. There is so much talk about heart ache and family troubles, about needs and addictions, about God and need for a Savior. I have so much to learn from my friends about being honest. Often I try and hide everything that I feel shame about, only to be slowly decaying. If I truly believe that God is love and if in perfect love there is no fear, then the only option is to be honest. I am so thankful for the example of my homeless friends and I am excited to learn from them everyday.