So, what exactly is an "Urban Neighbor"??

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to throw out this quick post to those of you who are following our blog and are still wondering, so what exactly is an "Urban Neighor"? How is it different than just moving to the city and living there on your own? Well, don't feel too bad if you are still scratching your head trying to understand what exactly we are doing because sometimes I find myself asking the same question! ha. By that I mean, this program which we call "Urban Neighbors" is much less a noun, or something we can describe but rather it is much more a verb, or something you live out. It is much more something we are learning to do... to be an active part of our community, to learn about injustices and how they affect the neighbors living among us, to live out our faith, in a real and intentional way.

Okay, so for those of you who would like some more concrete information specifically about the "Urban Neighbors" program here it is. "Urban Neighbors" is one part of a larger organization known as Urban Homeworks. According to the Urban Homeworks website, "The mission of Urban Homeworks is to perpetuate the hope of Jesus Christ through innovative community development that produces dignified housing for low-income families, a strategic network of good neighbors and the redemptive development of real estate." Bascially, as "Urban Neighbors" we are called to live life intentionally with others. Urban Homeoworks places "Urban Neighbors" strategically in different urban neighborhoods throughout the Twin Cities and we have been so blessed to have been placed in Frogtown, St.Paul.

As followers of Christ we are called to live alongside those and be in community with those who come from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds than ourselves. Come along for the ride as you follow us on our blog, and we hope that you too will join us in this journey as we continue to learn what it means to truly be an "Urban Neighbor", and live out our faith in a real and intentional way! Check out the video below for a more detailed explanation of how Urban Homeworks "works":)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWstfQSdyY0

God bless,

Sarah

God is Faithful!!!!

Hey everyone,
As Sarah mentioned before, the two of us haven't done the greatest job sharing what life has been like for us the past few months.  Before we moved into Frogtown, we both talked with lots of family and friends about what we were about to do, many of whom expressed interest in hearing how it went.  Thus, the creation of our blog :)  We are excited to have all of you along with us for the journey as God is teaching us and moving in our lives. 

Here is a recent story of God's faithfulness in my life.

Our house in Frogtown is 10 miles from Bethel University where we both go to school.  Right now, I have a car (our old Durango) and feel so blessed to have had it this past summer so that I was able to get around and see my parents when I needed to (thank you mom and dad).  However, the car is getting old and doesn't start in the winter time.  Sarah has a car, but certain days our schedules are very different from one another.  My parents and I discussed the option of selling the Durango and getting a used car for me this year.  Actually, regardless the Durango is going because it is so old.  However, there is no way I would be able to pay for gas, insurance, repairs, and the rest of the bills that come with having a car for a whole year.  I was beginning to worry about it a little bit because I need some way of getting to school, to a grocery store, and wherever I am going to volunteer; one of the commitments I made as an Urban Neighbor is to volunteer somewhere regularly. 

As some of you know, God has put a passion in my heart to be with people going through homelessness.  I wanted to get more connected with a ministry, transitional housing organization, or housing program of some sort and volunteer there this year.  One night this past summer, I was surfing the web, looking at some sweet ministries and I came across a place in downtown St. Paul called The Listening House (http://listeninghouse.org/admin/).  As I searched the website, I immediately fell in love with it, because not only does it meet needs but it emphasizes the dignity and personhood of those going through homelessness as well as the importance of building relationships and community with them.  There was also another ministry I was interested in called Free Arts (http://www.freeartsminnesota.org/) where I would be doing art with formerly homeless kids to build healthy relationships with them and allow them to heal from tramatic experiences, but the Lord closed the door on that one.  I also was able to talk with another Urban Neighbor who has spent time at the Listening House, and after some prayer, I knew that was where I am supposed to be this year.

So, I needed a way to get to school in Arden Hills, back home to Frogtown, downtown St. Paul to The Listening House, and places like a grocery store.  I had a Durango that wouldn't last too much longer, a bank account that couldn't pay the expenses of a car, and a God who is much bigger than all of that!  Thankfully the latter came through!  Sarah and I had been taking the bus that stops at the end of our street to the Rosedale Mall, and then Bethel's free shuttle from the mall to Bethel as a way of getting to school.  But I didn't know if I would be able to get everywhere else I needed to by bus all the time.  Especially because most people I talked to were very critical of the bus system and didn't seem to think it was a reliable method of transportation.  As I was praying one morning, I went to the metro transit website, and looked up a bus route that would go from my house to The Listening House.  This is where God completely blew me away.  The same bus route that takes me from my street to the Rosedale Mall so I can go to Bethel, also has a stop one block from The Listening House!!  It runs from 7:20 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every half hour every day.  It also has a stop right by a Cub Foods located between Bethel and my house.  This one bus route can take me to school, my house, where I volunteer, and a grocery store almost whenever I need to!  I am able to get by without a car, so I can still have money to pay for rent and groceries!  God is SO faithful!!!  He will provide when we seek to do His will!!

To add to the amazing faithfulness of Jesus, this past weekend Sarah and I got an email from Bethel's Student Life Office to commuters announcing that for the first time, Bethel is offering through metro transit a college metro pass of unlimited rides for a whole semester for only $140.  To give you an idea, I spend about $80 or so a month on bus fares.  This will save me roughly $500 this school year!!!  I just got mine today and will use it tomorrow morning :)  I am so blown away by how God has blessed Sarah and I throughout this whole thing starting from us meeting in the laundry room at Bethel where she told me about Urban Neighbors to now.  It's pretty incredible.

For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
-Psalm 33:4

May you experience His faithfulness too as you trust Him with everything in life!!

Shalom,
Mindy

Cooking Delights

Here's our Pisto Manchego with eggs! Sarah and I made this the night the old roommates moved out, and had to eat on the floor because we no longer had any furniture!!! It tasted amazing!

This is Sarah's "perfect" chicken nugget.  I'd say it looks pretty yummy :)

This was the nasty raddish pesto, don't let it's looks deceive you.  Whoever wrote that recipe must have done so when they were sick and couldn't taste anything.  Seriously, gag reflexes here.

Here's some yummy fried zuchinni from the farmers market!  mmmmmm :)

You can find more of our cooking creations on facebook!

Some Food for Thought

Hello everyone!! We are so sorry we have done a horrible job at keeping you all updated on everything that we have been experiencing through our first official month with our new roommates living in Frogtown as "Urban Neighbors." This past month of September has been a crazy one filled with lots of moving, transitions and changes. So, needless to say we feel very thankful we are done with the move-in process!

In addition to moving in, this month has been filled with numerous cooking experiments. Mindy found a bunch of recipes she wanted to try out after we all moved in, so this past month the term “master chef”  has become something other than a “reality TV show”… it has become OUR reality! Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating just a tad, but we can dream can’t we? J Some of our first cooking “experiments”, which I thought would most likely go horribily wrong (especially with me cooking haha), actually turned out to be  some of the best  recipes we’ve made so far. We made “Pisto Manchego” for our first attempt. It turned out amazingly well despite my skepticism at first. We cut up a bunch of different vegetables including green peppers, onions, tomatoes and added seasonings and then we cooked it in a frying pan. We then made holes in the veggie mixture and cracked eggs into the holes. Its sounds kind of strange, but if was actually really good! One dish that definitely did not turn out like we had hoped it would, was our “radish pesto” spaghetti dish. Mindy and I thought we were being so resourceful by using the leaves of our radishes we bought  to make a pesto. Unfortunately, the dish ended up tasting more like a mixture of spaghetti and dandilions and looked like we had left it in the back of the fridge too long and had gone green with mold! We definitely were still hungry after dinner that night. Another dish we made that was a success is something a little more mainstream…aka “chicken nuggets”. Mindy wasn’t super into the idea of having to cut up a dead chicken, so I had to take the reins on that one! I actually got the hang of it, and cut one that I claimed was the “perfect” chicken nugget shape…you can judge for yourself whether you agree with me or not on that! And, man did those chicken nuggets taste delicious! (especially since the “chicken died happy” as I would say, because it was raised on a free-range organic farm!)

 Mindy and I are trying to be more “food industry conscience”, meaning we want to be more intentional  about where we buy our food products from and how the animals and workers are treated by those corporations. Mindy and I recently watched a movie called “Food, Inc.” which exposes many of the injustices within the U.S. food industry.  According to the “Food Inc.” movie website www.foodincmovie.com , approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Besides the fact that this is a massive consumption of meat, the way the majority of the animals are treated at these “factory farms” is an outrageous injustice. Even worse, is the way that many of the workers at these “factory farms” are exploited and abused.  Because the corporations that own the majority of these “factory farms” are huge multi-billion dollar industries the injustices and exploitation become justified in the name of “quality meat”. As this documentary (Food, Inc.) shows, often times these injustices are nearly invisible to the general public, because we have no connection to the land and those who are processing our food. By trying to spend money more locally, and actually meeting the people who are growing your food, we can take one large step towards a more humane food system. When Mindy and I are able to we have been trying to buy fresh produce from the St. Paul Farmer’s Market. I have found this to be a wonderful way to meet those who are doing the hard labor of harvesting our food.  Despite my initial assumptions about farmer’s markets, it has been a pleasant surprise to find out that the produce we buy locally there is probably at least ½ the price, if not less, than the produce I would typically buy at Cub or another chain supermarket. Unfortunately, I still have found organic food in general at supermarkets to be a bit more expensive most of the times.

While it may sound like we have this whole eating “local and organic foods” thing all figured out, we are by no means anywhere close. I feel like I have so much to learn about the food industry, how to buy “intentionally”, and of course the actual cooking part of the foodJ  However, like all things in life we are on a journey. We may never buy “all organic” or “all locally grown”, but what’s truly important is where our motives lie in doing this. God cares more about where our motives lie, then what so called “good acts” we may be doing. If we are trying to buy more local or organic but are only doing it to look “righteous”  we must be reminded that we are no better than those we are supposedly so against. God calls us to be good stewards of his land and work towards restoring to justice who have been denied their rights. In Leviticus 25, Moses speaks about a year declared by the Lord every seven years called the “Year of the Jubliee”. This was meant to be a time when debts were forgiven, land was redistributed to those of whom it had been taken away, and mercy was shown to those who were foreigners working in a strange land. Imagine what this could like look in our world today. Families being foreclosed from their home finding out their land was bought and given back to them by a neighbor, or migrant day laborers actually receiving a livable pay and humane treatment by their bosses. I wait in hope for the day when these “Jubliee” acts will not seem so outrageous and will be an ordinary part of the ETERNAL “Year of the Jubliee”! Until then, I’ll keep looking heavenward. Much like our failed cooking “experiments”, I’ll keep living my life by seeing the beauty in the complete messes and finding joy in the small triumphs, like making a recipe without burning our house down! May God fill you with peace, wisdom and a maybe even a hunger to try out some new “food experiments” of your own in the kitchen. J

His peace, love & justice,

Sarah