Details!

So here it is! The full and complete answer to the question I’ve gotten so many times, “What will you be doing?”

Well, of course I can’t answer that question fully and completely, but I now have exciting details such as what neighborhood I’ll live in, what church I’ll attend, where I will be working during the week, and who is on my Mission Year team! Take notes so that you have specific people and places to pray for!

Where?

I’m going to live in Southwest Philadelphia (click here for a map)! My neighbors will mostly be African and African-American, mostly working class. Many of the homes there are in the style of “row houses,” where the long, narrow homes are lined up side by side down the block, with a very small front yard and a stoop leading straight to the sidewalk. I will live down the street from my…

…Church!

I will attend Grace Christian Fellowship (visit their website here), “a non-denominational Christian fellowship dedicated to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection to all men, women, boys, and girls.” It has grown from a small Bible study of 22 in the home of Rev. Cean R. James in 2005 to a growing congregation of 250 with a permanent home on Grays Avenue in Southwest Philly. They are committed to reaching the people of their neighborhood with the gospel.

Service Site

I will be serving at the People’s Emergency Center (PEC) (check out their website), an organization that “nurtures families, strengthens neighborhood, and drives change. We are committed to increasing equity and opportunity throughout our entire community. We provide comprehensive supportive services to homeless women and their children, revitalize our West Philadelphia neighborhood, and advocate for social justice.” The services they offer range from emergency, transitional, and permanent housing to employment training, to childcare and healthcare. In addition, PEC is involved in developing and rehabilitating affordable housing and spurring the growth of business in West Philly. They also advocate for policies that protect the working poor and homeless. Although the details are not yet set in stone, I'll be working in the digital literacy programs designed to "bridge the digital divide." (visit the digital literacy website) I'm very excited to join alongside what PEC is doing to pursue change in West Philadelphia!

Finally…

Team Members!

These are the people I’ll be living with for the next year! I am excited to be able to experience so much with them in the next year. We will pray together, be discipled together, eat together, walk together, learn to love in so many new ways, and so much more! Learn their names and faces by visiting their personal donation pages:

Priscilla Bui

Walter Levi Wawra

Sophilia Hubbard

Denise Lee

Nicole Roberts

and my alum team leader, Isabella Fout

Start following their blogs now and over the course of the year get a different angle on my life in Philadelphia, through their eyes!

When?

Here’s my somewhat complicated schedule:

• Visit Atlanta friends August 30-Sept 6
• Mission Year national orientation in Houston Sept 6-Sept 11
• Mission Year Philly orientation Sept 11~Sept 18
• Start living the Mission Year life ~Sept 18!

Thanks so much for praying through these things and taking the time to walk with me along my MY journey.

Gratitude and Humility

After this week, I am ever so close to finishing my fundraising for Mission Year! A couple of events pushed me so close that I can taste it! One was last Sunday when my family and I hosted several friends, many of whom have already supported my Mission Year financially, for a graduation and send-off party. We intended it to be a time for me to connect with friends in Charleston before I leave in a couple of weeks, and to thank the many people who have supported me so far.

The first guests arrived promptly at 3:00, the starting time of my drop-in. For some reason, I was surprised when they handed me an envelope. Now I realize that it is customary to bring a gift to a party celebrating a momentous life occasion such as graduating from college. But for some reason I didn't expect that this time. As more and more guests piled into our somewhat cramped home, most of them presented envelopes upon arrival, and suddenly I had a large stack piling into a chair near the front door, the impromptu gift depository. At one point I had a couple of minutes in between conversations to consider that each envelope probably had a check inside (also customary for a graduation party). I felt tears well up that I quickly suppressed. I know it was my party, but I didn't want to cry.

The tears were of gratitude, something that I have felt over and over throughout my fundraising process. And that is a rather different reaction from four years ago when I graduated from high school. My family hosted a party then, too, but at that party I was counting the number of envelopes as they piled up. I couldn't wait to open them and total up the money I had “earned” by graduating from high school.

That old sense of entitlement seeped into my Mission Year fundraising at first. I have raised thousands of dollars of support for several different endeavors, so committing to Mission Year and $12,000 of fundraising wasn’t overwhelming to me, even though it is by far the largest sum I’ve attempted to raise. I have been a part of many churches that taught me by example the meaning of generosity. So I had complete expectation that they would teach me again how the Lord equips those He calls. But the faith the Lord has given me is not always seasoned with humility or gratitude.

That’s where the (almost) tears came from. Raising $12,000 offers a lot of opportunity for humility and gratitude. Here are a few of them:

One of the very first people to make a donation was a friend from freshman year that I had not kept up with as much as I always wished I did. Even though we hadn’t spoken in months, he promptly made a donation online when I first announced my commitment to MY. I might expect that from a Christian friend who shared my same passion for justice (one such acquaintance from church made a $200 donation). This friend does not fit that description. I was humbled by the gift coming out of the blue toward a mission that didn’t match the giver.

Several students still in college have given $50, $100, and even $200! Granted, I went to a private school where most students have wealthy families, but it’s still humbling to have peers--college students--give that much!

Even more humbling is to hear the story of a friend and financial supporter whose life has been marked by tragedy and, in its wake, financial hardship. After sharing about how the Lord has shown His faithfulness through the provision of others, she handed me an envelope with $100 inside. In the midst of hardship, she had learned the importance of generosity. Let me tell you, it’s humbling to receive from the humbled.

Other college friends gave out of their hard-earned summer paychecks, some with large, one-time gifts and others with smaller gifts out of each paycheck over the course of the summer. Knowing how precious that cash can be, I was humbled.

Also humbling are the gifts of family friends whose love is rooted in memories of me as a child. Their support has always been there, and only now do I appreciate it.

It is really those that give on a regular basis that draw out the most gratitude. Several dear friends and family members have been giving for several months now, becoming my largest financial supporters. Although I am tempted to feel entitled to those monthly gifts, they also hold the greatest potential for humbling me because they came once…and then again. And again. And again! And they continue to come. Each gift is more humbling.

And finally I’ll share the second event that pushed me very close to finishing fundraising. On Wednesday night, my church home for this summer, First Baptist Church of Ravenel, voted to give $1,200 toward MY expenses! What an unexpected blessing, another humbling experience.

And that’s where I am now. I’ve been hit with generosity so many times that I couldn’t handle the sight of the envelopes sitting in that chair by the door last Sunday. In fact, I delayed opening them for a bit to keep from facing it. But gratitude and humility are not to be staved off. Thank you to all of my supporters, from the $5 one-time giver to the $100 monthly giver, for so many opportunities for gratitude.

Stay tuned for another post about all of the fun details I’ve recently learned about what I’ll be doing during my year in Philadelphia!