Light Shining in Least Religious Places

I've recently been processing what it means to be sent as light into a dark world (Matthew 5:14-16), along with my love and passion for Boston.  I'm convinced that the light of Jesus shines brightest in the darkest of places.  This map communicates the recent results of a Gallup Poll finding on the Least Religious States in America (Boston Globe 1/28/09).  I'm grateful for God's call to be caught up in shining His light in one of the darkest places in America.  What a thrill!

The Gift of Gifts

As we celebrate this Advent season, we have been meditating on what Christ's coming really meant, and what it means for us today.

O Source of all Good,

What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts, thine own dear Son, begotten, not created, my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute, his self-emptying incomprehensible, his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp. Herein is wonder of wonders: he came below to raise me above, was born like me that I might become like him. Herein is love; when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace, to raise me to himself. Herein is power; when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart he united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created. Herein is wisdom; when I was undone, with no will to return to him, and no intellect to devise recovery, he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost, as man to die my death, to shed satisfying blood on my behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for me. O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds, and enlarge my mind; let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore, my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father; place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with them upon my Redeemer's face, and in him account myself delivered from sin; let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart, embrace him with undying faith, exulting that he is mine and I am his. In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.

The valley of vision

Football Anyone?

Our boys are fans. They read the sports section of the paper everyday and have become Patriots' fans, which they are thrilled that they have done so well in the past. To their dismay, Tom Brady was injured and Matt Cassel took his place. (Lots of good things come out of USC. Go Trojans!) They have been rather pleased with his performance and many a conversation has centered on him. Our little princess is privy to these conversations, but is rather ignorant of what they actually mean.

The children were visiting with a friend named Matt, who lives in a high rise apartment recently. Trying to be "in" the conversation, her comment was, "I am going to Matt's castle."

Squanto

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with 25 people bustin' at the seams-the house and our clothes! It was especially fun to celebrate in Massachusetts where the original Thanksgiving happened. We have been studying early American History and have actually WALKED at Plimoth and various other places which has made the boys incredibly excited about history.

As our guests arrived for Thanksgiving, our youngest son greeted them at the door wearing an Indian costume that I bought 2 years ago for him. He was quite a sight, bustin' at the seams (before the turkey dinner) with his quad-zilla thighs. One of our friend commented on his appropriate attire and he answered, "Well, SOMEONE needed to be Squanto!"

If you haven't read the story of Squanto and seen God's hand of sovereignty, it is well worth the read! Our son was quite moved. http://www.eschatologytoday.net/newsviewer.php?id=13

Meany

We are good at studying culture and learning the who's and why's and what-cha-ma-call-its. We are good at becoming part of the culture. "When in Rome"...Part of it is in the job description so we can live the culture and understand why the people respond to life like they do. It is a big part of loving our neighbors.

However, we have found that we were being mean. We have become mean drivers, saying things under our breath about the pedestrians that jumped out from between 2 parked cars (when the cross walk is 2 steps away) that we are obligated to stop for unless we want to be charged with vehicular homicide. Or the pedestrian that crosses in the crosswalk against the light, when our light is green. We have also been short tempered with eachother. We realized that we are not being full of the light of Christ and wonder how we will reach the culture with the Gospel if we are being chamelians in this particular characteristic. We are working on "believing the best" in folks. Maybe they are really cold like the rest of us and are trying to hurry to cross the street and get warm!?

Please Pray

We have added some newspaper articles about things that pertain to our beloved neighborhood. Please be mindful as you read that these are real people that our Lord cares about. As we dwell on these things and try to sort out the violence that seems overwhelming, we are reminded that we hold the answer to these issues and we are asked to participate in the solutions, caring about individuals one by one. Loving God first, then our neighbor. We'd like to remind you too, that our neighborhood isn't all about violence, gangs and crime. That is really a small percent of the 280,000 souls that reside here. The "rest of us" are living, working and playing in this place.

Shawmut

Remember this song? "I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me."

In the beginning, Boston wasn't called Boston. Native Americans called it Shawmut because it had springs and waters full of fish. In the Indians' language, Shawmut meant "living waters" or "living fountains".

We find this to be very curious. And we find Boston full of opportunities to fish for men: to tell them of the TRUE living water found only in Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 49
"8 This is what the LORD says: "In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you: I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!' "They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.

John 4:10
"Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'"

Super Service Saturday

We had 3 venues for serving in Dorchester yesterday. The boys did a neighborhood cleanup on a very long street. Leave it to them to make it fun! They were rewarded points for the kind of trash they found. Our middle child won-he found the most noteworthy trash.

On another note, we continue to see the need for Christians in the city that are willing to make a difference and stick it out in hard times. As the boys were cleaning up, they also witnessed a drug exchange and were taught to "keep their eyes on their shoes." We are thankful for God's on-going protection in our family, but also for the life lessons we are able to teach the children, like why people are involved in drugs, how we should respond, which leads us to pray for our neighborhood and neighbors. It has been incredible to see their compassionate hearts, instead of hearts of hard judgement

BRRRRRRR!

It's officially cold. I had to scrape the frost off the car this morning to take our 7th grader to school. My neighbor didn't have any frost on her car. She jokingly told me I had parked the car the wrong way. Maybe we need some trees...We are trying to keep warm. There is a lot involved in this process. We have closed up certain parts of the house and are using ceramic heaters. The issue is that we have oil heat which is very expensive, so we are all chipping in our chattering teeth to make due. Night time has us all bundled under down, in between flannel. Day time has us drinking hot drinks all day and using those microwavable heating pads to keep warm. We actually feel very spirited wearing around our UGA heating pad or cute wearing around the fuzzy dog heating pad. Maybe it will be a new fashion statement. I am telling myself that we can keep learning-our brains are well insulated and they are not frozen. It is only going to get colder! And from an time efficiency standpoint, it takes so long to get dressed-and dress eveyone else! Where, oh, where, do I find the time to deal with the cold?!

A new fast food restaurant

On our way to a retreat in "New Hamster", we stopped for dinner at a restaurant. Our little princess calls it, "Undies". Can you guess the name?

I am witnessing a great deal from her spending so much time with her brothers. The jokes that normally our boys only do and laugh at are now including a high tittering from the little one. Like, "Madeline (her doll) pooted!" On another note, she is developing such sweet relationships with her brothers, when they aren't armpit tooting and burping the alphabet.

Growing up

As we were sitting at the dinner table the other night, we were informed by our middle child that he could now "juke". Instead of plowing through and over the top of the other "players" (namely, his brothers) while carrying a football, he is "jukin'" them. We are excited to see more things they will learn as a result of living in Dorchester!

Birthday Chaos!

Our baby has turned 4. I suppose I will always call her the baby, even though our days of diapers and pack-n-plays are gone. Our outside planned party turned to the inside as we began counting days of rain prior to and on her party day. Parenthood is all about being flexible!

As we reflect on the gift that she is, I stand in awe of His plan and goodness. She is a blessing. She is spirited. She is joy. She loves to learn and to lead. She draws us to our knees as we ask the Lord to soften her heart and bring her into a relationship with himself. She is a covenant child. God planned her to be in our family from the foundation of the earth. Utterly amazing!

Sweet Teaching Moment

The boys have been memorizing Psalm 8 for school:

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

While I was reading aloud about the solar system to our youngest son, he asked me how the moon got there and stays in place. A smile spread over my face as we said Psalm 8 aloud together and he was able to draw the TRUTH from the Word. What could be more beautiful?

Learning Curve

Whew! It has been a crazy few weeks. We are learning about having homework for the first time, time management and how to eeek out a few spare moments of quiet into a continually hectic day. Our oldest child LOVES her new school and we are just as crazy about it, although we thought we had lost her to the books for good, until we decided on teaching some organizational tools. We are learning to find a balance between school, family, fun/free time and alone time. Personally, I have never had this challenge quite to this level and am learning to trust the Lord to meet me in those little spare moments. I had a friend once tell me to sing songs that are appropriate for moments of repetitive chores like, "What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus", when I am doing the dishes. That is just beautiful! The other 4 children are homeschooling and cruising right along. The first 2 weeks, they have done so well and fell right back into their routine of getting their work done.

I Wondered

I wondered if the kids would get to play in the fire hydrant since we are in the city. It reminds me of Sesame Street. Here, the kids are at a Life is Good festival in Boston Common.

Gardening

Since we have been unable to move into our house, we have found great joy hanging out in the backyard, meeting our neighbors and cleaning up the yard. The first 2, we have been able to do with ease...the last one has proven a challenge since we do not know the difference between a plant and a weed. If you have any great tips on gardening in New England, please share!

Was This Your Envelope?

After the USPS had it's way with this yellow giving envelope, this was all that was left.  We attempted to get finger prints, but we could not find a match.  If you happened to have sent a donation for our church plant, and it doesn't clear in a timely manner,  you'll know what happen to it--the USPS "Dog" ate it.  

She Won!

Our eldest entered a literary contest at the local library. She needed to read 3 books and write an essay on her favorite book. SHE WON! The winner's prize? 3 tickets to see the Red Sox!

Now that we are becoming Red Sox fans (especially with free tickets), we are reading up on the trivia. The Bambino is Babe Ruth. Early in his career he played for the Boston Red Sox. In 1920 Boston sold him to the New York Yankees for $125,000. Since then, the Boston Red Socks , until 2004, had never won another World Series. Red Sox fans had called this run of bad luck the Curse of the Bambino. Now, the curse is broken! Did we tell you they won in 2007 as well?

The question of the day is, which family members will get to go?

Need

One of our children is struggling with anger. The slightest comment, touch, attitude will set him off. If confronted, he will become more angry and hide himself. As we confronted him with this issue, he said, "I can't help it. I can't control it." As we continued the conversation, we shared with him how mommy and daddy sin like this as well and pointed him to the cross showing him THIS is why Jesus died. WE can't get rid of our sin-whatever it is: anger, idolatry, people-pleasing, but Jesus has done away with it. This is why we NEED Jesus. The comments that followed: "if only I had more friends", "if only we were in our house", "if only people were always nice to me"... What a reminder to us that instead of running to our Savior, who has ALREADY died for our sins, we continue to look in the garbage for other things, thinking they will satisfy and make us happy, only to find out they are trash that will never bring contentment. May we run to our wonderful Savior, who willingly gave his life with us on his mind.

Green Spaces

We have been pleasantly surprised to see Green Spaces all over the city. I still am a Seattle girl at heart and can really get into recycling and composting. These green spaces have previously been anything from abandoned lots to run down parks. Some of the farmer's markets even take WIC and food stamps. In fact, there was an article in the July issue of Cooking Light telling of one such place:

"Growing up in Hyde Park, an inner-city Boston neighorhood, (this is the neighborhood where our eldest child will be going to school) Brian Judge never tasted an apricot. In fact, before joining EarthWorks Boston, a nonprofit group dedicated to reclaiming neglected urban space, he'd never even seen one. Now, three years later, apricots have become at-work perks for the high school junior..."

Another fun outing we did as a family was to a grass roots community garden in Roxbury where some of our friends from church have labored. The garden was started and continues to be maintained by the folks in the neighborhood and they use it for events now. We attended a BBQ with full entertainment of a band and were able to meet some of the neighborhood people.