Home Sweet Home

Well, the week of orientation continues. Last night we attended the Taize service at the church. It was a unique, peaceful service and the songs we sang were beautiful even though they were so simple. There weren't many people who came to the service but among the people who did come was my host family, the McClures--so I got to meet them. I am supposed to go over to their house tomorrow night for dinner and I'm excited to get to know them better.

This morning we had a member of the congregation, who is a psychologist and a visiting prof at Vanderbilt, speak to us about community. He had some interesting insights, a couple of which I thought I would share. First, he emphasized how political correctness is not a factor in relational intimacy, because part of getting to know each other means raw honesty. Many of us (esp. us women), he explained, are afraid to say what we want and what we need in a relationship because we don't stand our ground and are too focused on the needs of others. He also said that as a result of this, you cannot build community just based on pleasing others or "feel good" words. Another insight he had that I liked was that you can't control God's grace in a relationship. You ought to notice it and be thankful for it but you can't control it or dispense it like God (and thus we ought to be concerned with fairness between one another).

Susan (our coordinator) took Katie and I do help her with the Meals-on-Wheels program with Martha O'Bryan, a partner agency that neither of us volunteers chose. Martha O'Bryan is a family center for low-income families and neighborhoods and the Meals-on-Wheels program is a lunch distribution service for individuals in that area. Katie and I were assigned to an area called "High Rise"- a 9 story weathered apartment building- and surrounding houses. We met some very interesting people and it was fun. I think my favorite was a guy who calls himself "Elvis Presley Jr." We were warned that he genuinely thought he was Elvis Presley's son and that he wasn't quite all there (and was on some sort of drug). Although a very strange guy (and he REALLY did look like Elvis Presley) he was pretty harmless. But he did invite Katie and I to go to the Nashville Fair with him. Rest assured that we didn't agree to it. :)

After lunch today, Katie and I worked on our House Covenant. We talked about house rules and personal boundaries like a normal roommate agreement, but we also thought about how to enact the piece about "living in intentional Christian community" together. Although we already made the prayer wall, we decided that we would try to do a devotional together regularly to help keep each other spiritually-minded. Katie and I have many similar living habits so things should go smoothly. If not, hopefully by God's grace we can learn to communicate well with each other and to patiently bear with one another.

Tomorrow we start our Vocational Discernment and we'll be taking the Myers Briggs personality test and a few others. I've already taken the Myers Briggs a few times but I still like taking it. :) And who knows, maybe the result will be different this time!

Please pray for community this weekend as we meet everyone in the church and try to become an active part of this congregation. We are going to be commissioned in the church during worship on Sunday. Should be good! I really hate standing up in front of people though, so hopefully I don't get so nervous I pass out. lol .

Please pray for relationships formed between our host families and that we would be able to bless them as I think they will us.

I'll write again on Saturday or Sunday. Thanks for the prayers!