loving a neighborhood

There are no formally recognized church buildings in my immediate neighborhood. And it's the kind of neighborhood that would be "walkable" in a developing country, but not here. Our streets are dug into the side of a cliff. Every direction from our house ends up being an uphill journey, thanks to the topography of local creeks. We live in a commuter community anyways, but our neighborhood especially requires access to a car or access to compassion from someone with a car.

I can't remember if it was right before we moved into the house or right after, but sometime this summer I printed off Google Maps pages showing every house of worship near us. The closest ones are just shy of 2 miles. For a neighborhood titled by the county as an "Urban Growth Area (UGA)" those maps were my pictorial representation of what it looks like to be an "unchurched" county.

Just about every day we drive past a large parcel of re-zoned land, home to an upcoming development. I finally found the details through a Zillow announcement yesterday that 240 homesites are ready for purchase/building. The picture below is from the developer's website, clearly showing our little church-less neighborhood:

In 2014, our neighborhood had a population of 480 people. (That was the last time the city tried to annex our neighborhood, but didn't.) I couldn't find any updated numbers, but I can see four houses that were built after 2014 from my window. It feels like our community is already growing, but with 240 new homes it may be ready to double. I think that our neighborhood is following the same trend as our county, pictured here:

Charts and graphs aside, we love our neighborhood by being the Church. We've only scratched the surface of meeting our community. So far our primary way of meeting our community has been working on the unruly fence and front yard. The way we engage our community is by writing the details of our next party on a door and leaning it against the house. A literal interior door is our signal that our door will be open for anyone. It's cheesy and makes my husband cringe a little, but it's how our down-the-hill community knows there will be a party.

It's easy to spend time with the friendly neighbors with similar family structure and sleep schedules. It's fun to share baked goods and celebrate in the backyard or living room. And the Art Show! The "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" Art Show was one of my favorite days of, well basically ever.

We haven't done much of the hard stuff yet, but we're ready. It helps that one of us is always home. We've driven neighbors up the hill to the bus stop and into town for kid's doctor appointments. We've shared our grief openly and been humbly comforted by those who have an opposite belief system. 

The previous owner, Chelsea, left a heart-shaped chalkboard sign with some of her garden supplies. It hangs next to our literal front door with the quote "the Christian community is to treat everyone with dignity." It's a quote from the book Everyday Church by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis. Beau & I both read the book again this Spring for book clubs we were part of at our local church. It's our written reminder to be kind to all who enter our house, invited or not. We entertain all kinds of guests at our humble house on the cliffside. We see our home as an extension of our family, able to show Christ's love by listening, praying or just enjoying a cheese plate. 

We love imperfectly. We do everything imperfectly. But, we try. Since we're loved perfectly, we step out and take big risks in love.

• We love our neighbors because Jesus tells us to: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31 
• We love our neighbors because they are people, made in God's image. "So God created man and woman in his own image, male and female he created them."  Genesis 1:27
• We love because love shows the world who Jesus is. "We love because He (Jesus) first loved us." 1 John 4:19
• We love in the little details, like making change for bus fare. "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Matthew 25:35&36 

I would love for all of my favorite people to join us in this neighborhood. I keep pushing out real estate listings to friends thinking about moving already. But the reality is that God is at work in the cliffs. Whether our friendlies join us here or not, God is building the Church as Heaven comes to earth. 

We get a front-row view here on the edge of the cliff at the edge of the continent. We're loving our neighbors and our neighbors to come. We're trusting that God's plans are for glory, for humanity restored in relationship with God forever. We choose to love.

reading as a family

Advent built in a habit of starting the day with text. Inspired text is different than a parenting or church-planting guidebook, of course, but the rhythm and process of reading speaks to the soul nonetheless. There's a routine and comfort to reading. And while we won't be practicing lectio divina with my husband's new StarWars book, there's still a calm pleasure from a good book.

This holiday season has reminded us of how much we love reading. Most of the books on the left and center have been finished already, plus all of the other board books that made it up to our son's nursery. We're so blessed that we would love to share. These are the books that made it into the "library bin" instead of being put away.

I'm making an effort to read more. It started this summer, during nap times at our tall house on the side of the freeway. The reading habit regained strength when we lost our baby in October and I needed things to do with my grieving mind. I've found that my inner student doesn't even need a "good" book to enjoy, so I spent part of this break reading a local Christmas romance novel compilation. We live in a literary society with an embarrassing amount of text available, so I'm grateful for the thoughtful book selection from our family this Christmas. Here's more info about each book, if you're interested. (This is not a sponsored post, just a picture of books on our dining room table and links to the websites where I think each gift came from.)

Pictured above are the following books we read or will read:

A pretty book that looks like it's for kids, until you realize just how deep this "well-known" poem digs into human existence.


Another book for our sweet little one with larger implications of justice and kindness. His dear auntie hopes that he will be passionate and treating all humans with dignity and restoring families who are broken by government systems. Our first attempt at coloring ended up with Sharpie lines all over the couch, though, so for now we talk about the pictures and pray for children separated from their families.


This is the one we picked out for our little explorer. We want all of the kids in our house to see science as a way of life, with pathways for anyone to become a professional scientist. And mama needs to practice more science vocabulary in Spanish to be a better Guatemalan teacher, so this sturdy book is perfecto for our collection. Since we bought this one, I know it came from our local bookstore: Liberty Bay Books.

My mom found this incredible compilation of adventure stories, photos and inspiration. I read the whole book in one and a half sittings on Christmas Eve. Then, thoroughly enjoyed our family Christmas hike into the DNR land between our house and school. We live in a ridiculously blessed landscape and I'm ready to spend more days without cell reception in 2020! God always speaks to me the most clearly in the wildness and wilderness. I'm excited for the opportunities to be in Creation and with Creation this year, recognizing the raw beauty of mountains and hiking companions.


This is the book that I put on my wishlist hoping that a sister or sister-in-law would pick. (My sister-in-law is reading her own copy right now, actually). So, I was a little surprised when my mother-in-law wrapped it up. I finished it within 24 hours, it's that good. Good, because it's challenging: The kind of challenging where you feel like a friend is telling you how hard and good obedience to our loving God can be. Rachel's passing this year was sad for the entire Evangelical community this year. Her prophetic voice continues ringing clearly. Praise our good God!



This one surprised me, too. A book about mindfulness from my mom! I am saving this one for right before school starts, since I know that my reactive parenting is a bigger deal in the classroom right now than at home. It's easier for me to be patient with a snuggly one-year-old who looks like my best friend than it is to be the "safe person" for teenagers in trauma. Here's hoping our Little Love benefits from the lessons in this book, too.


My husband put this book on his list because it's written by one of his seminary professors. We still live as church planters in our cliff-side community. There's not a church in "walking distance" of our home. But, there are a number of starter homes and manufactured homes for sale in the neighborhood, if anyone wants to come join the movement! ;)


And speaking of church-planting...This year our focus is on dinner. We're committing to open our home for people who need dinner, whether they are like us or not. On the flipside, we'll go to dinner when we're invited, too. I don't know what this will look like, yet, so we'll see. Our immediate community is our mission focus and we're trying to figure out where our "team" is and how to worship God together. Hopefully more stories to come...


And last of all, a book for Beau. He picked it out at our aforementioned favorite local bookstore, Liberty Bay Books. I'm told it "fills in the gaps" between two movies, but I can't remember which ones. I love my nerd. He's the best.

And not pictured:


So, there you have it, friends. Email me if you want to borrow any of these, we should be done with the first read by January ;)

We're looking for a good family Bible reading plan for the new year, too. Something that is toddler-attention-span-friendly. Let me know if you have any leads.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Christmas in America

I've spent every Christmas of my life in the same nation. My understanding of the celebration is culturally American. My biases are from a lifetime with one set of traditions. The last few years, I've used the phrase "commercial Christmas" with friends and family to describe the mainstream American Christmas habits and attitudes. But my heart is longing for a different, simpler set of traditions.

I love the cards that trickle in all December long, updating us on the lives of dear ones. I love the lights and ornaments, turning dreary nights into sparking wonderlands. And I love the time with friends and family, the good food and the good drinks. That's American Christmas, to me.

Christmas is about God re-writing the course of history.

We love our family too much to make Christmas be about our family. The celebration shifts to the restoration of a larger family, the Church. The coming of Jesus to earth changed everything. We don't need special foods or Amazon boxes to remember the scandalous arrival of the King. Our little family of three has used every dark December morning to read the Bible and wait.

We wait for a King who has come already and is coming again. We wait with the tension of "already" and "not yet." We rejoice in hope. We mourn with those continuing to suffer. We fight for freedom from the darkness. We claim the victory of the Light.

Perfect celebrations don't happen on Earth. So, here in the not yet, we'll go to local church tomorrow and again on Tuesday. We'll spend days with family and eat good food as we look forward to the reunification of God and the Church. We pray, we wait, we serve, and we love. We know that God wins.

That's how I want to celebrate Christmas.

Whatever traditions you use to celebrate Christ's arrival, preach this hope. However you spend Tuesday, worship the King. Rejoice! The God of Abraham made a way for the poor and oppressed. You are spiritually poor. You need this Savior. And if you're not physically poor, you can help those who are. You can be one who shares Light, too. You can be one who speaks Hope. You can be one who spreads Peace.

Friends, I'm tired of the Church wasting Christmas. I'm tired of American Christ-followers ensnared in political arguments. Stop living like we're from America. Start living like we're from Heaven. Please, Church, spend Christmas living like our King. Please love our God. Please love your neighbors.