101 Things To Do From The Couch

We have the flu. Moving makes our heads feel like they will explode. We sit on the couch all day.

1. play paper football
2. play trashcan basketball
3. make a movie of us sitting on the couch to put on youtube
4. paint our toenails (boys may opt out of this, or opt for clear polish)
5. have a draft with our stuffed animals, create a playbook, and national championship game. Girls are cheerleaders with their newly painted toes
6. play 20 questions
7. make a most disgusting food menu
8. play "how many sick Rogers' can we get on the couch?"
9. make funny faces with "bubba teeth" and die laughing-then rest because our heads hurt
10. make a list of all the things you can do from the couch

A Family Favorite

Our youngest son recently shadowed in a friend of ours Kindergarten class. The highlight of the day was a "tomato" (tornado) drill. The lowlight of the day was only getting half a piece of lasagna at lunch (just like all the other K's), AND they wouldn't give him seconds!

Enjoying a Taste of Boston

Canoli's straight from Mike's Pastry in Boston compliments of the Dorchester crew.

About Dorchester

Dorchester is Boston's most populous neighborhood. Dorchester, including a large portion of today's Boston, was incorporated in 1630. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated. It is now a large, diverse working class community with many Caucasians, African Americans, Caribbean Americans, Latinos, and East and Southeast Asian Americans, and is still a center of Irish American immigration. America's first chocolate factory opened in Dorchester, in 1765, and the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory operated until 1965. Dorchester is the birthplace of the first public elementary school in America, the Mather School, established in 1639. The school still stands as the oldest elementary school in America.

Notable residents:
Ray Bolger- American actor. "Scarecrow" in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
Jordan Knight- lead singer of the 80s-90s Original boy band New Kids on the Block
Julio Lugo - starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox
Cotton Mather- Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer. Influential in the Salem Witch Trials, son of Increase Mather.
Leonard Nimoy- American actor. "Mr. Spock" of Star Trek
James Reid - A model/actor and contestant on the fourteenth season of the television series "Survivor"
Lucy Stone- women's rights activist and first woman to keep her last name upon marrying
Mark Wahlberg- Academy Award-nominated American actor and television producer, rapper "Marky Mark"

A Gospel-Driven, Grace-Filled Church

“Grace is the most potent counterforce at work in our violent species, and our only hope.”
-Phillip Yancy

At the center of our vision is the conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, that every malady and grief is addressed and substantially healed in this gospel. We long to see a transformation of the city by the outgrowth of the lives of the congregants as they are transformed by this gospel. We are convinced that the good news of the love of God expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus towards real sinners with real problems will change everything as it courses through our communities.

The church will be both a home and a mission by:

helping people know God through Christ-centered worship and prayer, and intentional evangelism and missions

building community among our members and neighbors with supportive fellowship and community, and restorative mercy and justice

following Christ in our lives, our city, and the world through relational learning and equipping, and cultural engagement and transformation

Quick Facts on "Dotchestah"

280,000 souls reside in Dot

65% of the population is African-American, Hispanic, Asian or multi-racial

39% of people in Dot hold Bachelor’s degrees.

Dot is home of UMass-Boston

Dot’s slogan, “Boston’s largest and most diverse neighborhood"

Deeply concerned about civic issues

Very “religious”, but only 5% of the population place their faith in Christ alone

260 colleges/universities in the New England region

“Settled” neighborhoods have been home to the same families for generations