Safe and Happy

Hi everyone.

Well, my mom and I arrived safely in Nashville (after a couple stops in Kansas, including a send-off party in Kansas City) Sunday evening. I am pretty much all unpacked. I guess that's one of the advantages of not bringing very much stuff!

I came down with a cold Wednesday night and was really mad since I thought I would be starting work yesterday but it turns out that we don't actually start at our agencies until this coming Monday. This week is our 'Orientation week' where we go over lots of logistics, spend time getting to know each other and Nashville, and learn about each others agencies so we can support one another better. So that was a nice surprise!

It's been fun to meet everyone so far. The other volunteer, Katie, is my house mate in the 'tool shed.' I was a little nervous about how we would get along. She is from Pennsylvania and her dad's a minister and I've been amazed at how well we get along. She's a really down-to-earth, sweet girl and we I think we're going to have a lot of fun living together this year. Last night we ventured out on the town and went to a Shakespeare Festival that is happening right now at a local park, where we saw Coriolanus (one of Shakespeare's lesser known pieces). The play was good, and the actors were really good! One of the directors of the play made an interesting comparison in the program in which they compared the main character Coriolanus to both Barack Obama and John McCain. We thought the comparison was a bit of a stretch but it was interesting, nonetheless.


We have a few events scheduled within the next few days but they all sound fun and not too demanding. Tomorrow we have a 'scavenger hunt" around Nashville to get to know the city, visiting each other's agencies, having lunch at my agency (The Campus) and meeting our host family from the church. Then tomorrow evening we are going to a Taize service at the church in the evening. The Taize service is modeled after an ecumenical Christian monastic community in France. The service incorporates prayer, meditation, and simple worship (usually chanting lines from the Psalms). If you'd like to learn more about the Taize community in France, I found a cool Wikipedia article!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiz%C3%A9_Community

Part of this year is a focus on intentional Christian community within our house. We are still learning and discerning how that looks. But today, one thing we decided to do to put this into action was to create a prayer wall out in our common room. We hung up Katie's map of the world and then we hung index cards for the prayers of people we know- and even those we don't know- all around the world around it.


I'm happy to be here, and I'm excited to meet everyone at my agency and at the church. I'm also excited (though, I admit, a little nervous) to get started at the Campus. I'll try to write a quick note about the Taize service tomorrow night.


Thanks for the prayers and support everyone. I can already tell I am going to be beyond blessed with the people in my life this year. Praise God for that.

The biggest prayer request I have for this week (and really, for the whole year)is figuring out how to eat cheaply with my diet restrictions (I can't eat wheat, dairy, egg or yeast). It's something that's hard to maintain while seeking and building community because I have trouble eating things at normal food gatherings. It has been a bit hard this week because Susan (our coordinator) has been treating us to meals and we are having several lunch get-togethers later this week. Please pray for understanding and acceptance and that we all could learn and grow together through bearing each others burdens (Gal 6:2).

Thanks!!
Love,

Blair