Greetings everyone!! Sorry it's been a little while since I last wrote! Life seems to be busy, until today. Life as slowed down a little as I began to really do the job search thing. If you remember, please pray that God really leads in this area. I've been a little nervous about this whole thing. Which leads me to where I am today. Learning to trust. Learning to trust God, learning to trust those around me, and learning to trust myself.
So, I think I left you with my car being broken down. Well, this is the first way God is saying "trust me." It would have cost far more to fix my car then my car was worth, so after all the laughs we had on our way here, I had to say good bye to my car. So my prayer has been that God would teach me to simplify. In fact, that is what the church will be studying together, "The Freedom of Simplicity" by Foster. But, right now it seems to make things all the more difficult. Many of the jobs I was applying for needed a car. Which doesn't rule out these jobs, just need to look at how it's going to work. The church has around 6 cars that people share, so this is a possibility!
We spent last week in orientation with all the new people. Pretty much how we do life here at Church of the Sojourners. It helped me relax knowing some details of things work. So just a few things, I know a lot of you are wondering how this all works. We live in 4 houses and split into households. My household includes everyone that I live with. So there are 6 of us right now that live in The Florida House. We do morning prayers together Monday-Friday at 6:45. We eat as households 3 suppers a week. We share finances. This part is a little scary in that I don't really have much money currently. But, this is how it works. Everyone in the church lives at the same standard of living, no matter how much you make. So you have enough to pay your bills; tithe, rent, food (which really goes into one pot with your households), medical, loans, debt, ect..... then you get a fund of $275 a month for whatever else you want to spend money on. Then anything else is God's money. And we discern together how God wants us to use it, who to give to, ect....... So another way God is teaching me that what I have is not my own, to trust Him, and trust those around me.
We also function a lot with discernment together. One day we practiced group discernment as one of the new people discerns a job situation. It will be a growing time for me of really trusting that God will speak through those around me. Pretty sweet. The Apprentices (Newbies) will meet once a week to help each other discern life stuff. We will study together a couple times a week. And will also take turns teaching.
This weekend we got to spend at the Quaker Center near Santa Cruz in the redwoods. It was beautiful. It was the annual all church retreat, so it was a great time of studying together what it means to be family, playing together (we got sweet time playing volleyball, bocce ball, ultimate frisbee, and of course settlers, yep they play out here too!), eating and praying together. It was a great to begin to really get to know some people. I'm beginning to really feel connected here. Which is good!
So, here I am learning to trust in a whole new situation. Breath, Nate, breath, God is here teaching me and He is in control! It will be year of great growth, a lot of mistakes I'm sure, new friends, and I pray a new level of trust!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
My New Home!
Here are some pics of my new Home!!
This my new home from the outside. My room is the first window from the ground!
This is the inside of my room!
This is the view from my room!
Well, today I'm working on my resume!! exciting, exciting. Time to look for a job. I do have one lead working with an environmental program that goes into the schools and teaches kids about the environment using reptiles!! So we'll see.
Tomorrow we start orientation. There are 5 other new people besides myself. A young adultish couple. They are really cool. I think I will get along well with them. They will eventually be in the room next to me, but he broke both legs in a motorcycle accident and is still recovering. So they are in a downstairs room for now. And there is also a women with twin boys. She is moving from Costa Rica. Another opportunity to learn Spanish!! Friday we go to a retreat center for a all church retreat in the redwoods somewhere near Santa Cruz. Some people from another community in NC will be here leading some stuff. They are some big names in the New Monastic movement. So it should be good. Miss you all. I will write again soon I'm sure.
This my new home from the outside. My room is the first window from the ground!
This is the inside of my room!
This is the view from my room!
Well, today I'm working on my resume!! exciting, exciting. Time to look for a job. I do have one lead working with an environmental program that goes into the schools and teaches kids about the environment using reptiles!! So we'll see.
Tomorrow we start orientation. There are 5 other new people besides myself. A young adultish couple. They are really cool. I think I will get along well with them. They will eventually be in the room next to me, but he broke both legs in a motorcycle accident and is still recovering. So they are in a downstairs room for now. And there is also a women with twin boys. She is moving from Costa Rica. Another opportunity to learn Spanish!! Friday we go to a retreat center for a all church retreat in the redwoods somewhere near Santa Cruz. Some people from another community in NC will be here leading some stuff. They are some big names in the New Monastic movement. So it should be good. Miss you all. I will write again soon I'm sure.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Broken down!
Yep, my car decided to not work so well!! And yes, me and my car make friends where ever we go!! That's our new friend Woody!!Thank God for wireless internet!!! Thank God for car dealerships and fix it places that have wireless so poor shlups like me can still write on my blog! Whoohoo!! Yep, my car decided it was tired. We had driven a long way together over the past couple days. And boy, let me till you did we have some laughs!! We laughed a lot at signs today. We laughed at the bigillion signs through Nevada that said, "Prison area, Hitchhiking prohibited." Why we found that funny, I don't know, but we did!! Then we pulled into Lovelock, NV!!!! I took a picture of this one!!
Where your love can remain locked!?!?! LOL!! What does that mean!! We had a good laugh about it though!!
We finally entered California!!
California sure is beautiful!!
Then it happened. I stepped on the gas. And nothing happened. My car decided we had had enough fun for one day. So I got to have a lovely over 1 hour conversation with a lovely women form Verizon Road Side Assistance. A tow truck finally arrived after the lovely Verizon lady finally caught on that I was in California and not SD. But, the tow truck came. Know that I look back on it, it was actually a pretty funny conversation!! But, thanks to her I did get a tow to a great place where I met my new friend Woody!! I should maybe think of a better name for him!! But he really like my facebook page. See he looks very interested!
Well, the great wonderful people from San Fran are on there way to pick up and my stuff. My car will get fixed on Monday!! Then we'll have to drive up next week and pick it up!! Well, there is my day. It actualy has been pretty good considering!!
Thank you all for your prayers!!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Driving!
Here I am in Wendover, UT!! If I only new it was the casino land of Utah!! Oh, well!! Well, I've driven 12 hours and have 9 left!!! Looking forward to finally getting there!!! What a day it has been though. Lots of ups and downs.
We'll start at the beginning of the day!! I left Rapid City this morning with tears in my eyes. Still in the letting go process!!! I got on the highway and panicked a little. It finally hit me that I was moving. So I texted a couple friends asking for prayers as I left. I got a text back that said "U can do this!! We are behind you and praying for you!" Well, needless to say I cried all the way to Hot Springs!! I was reminded of all of you that have been praying and have given words of encouragement to me over and over again!! Thank you all!! I was humbled.
Well, I put my Ipod on shuffle and it was pretty sweet on how God would bring certain songs up when I was thinking the same thing, or it was relevant to what was going on in my mind!!
One example that got me real excited about where God was leading me. It was an old Cadmeon's Call song, This World.
There's tarnish on the golden rule
And I wanna jump from this ship of fools
Show me a place where hope is young
And a people who aren't afraid to love
This world has nothing for me and this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need
This world is making me drunk on the spirits of fear.
So when he says who will go, I am nowhere near.
And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street
This world has held my hand and has led me into intolerance
But now I'm waking up, but now I'm breaking up
But now I'm making up for lost time
I listened to it 5 times in a row while driving through Salt Lake City!!
Thanks to all of you that I got to chat with today!! looking forward to chating with some more of you tomorrow!! Well, it's time for bed!! And don't worry I won't write every day!!
We'll start at the beginning of the day!! I left Rapid City this morning with tears in my eyes. Still in the letting go process!!! I got on the highway and panicked a little. It finally hit me that I was moving. So I texted a couple friends asking for prayers as I left. I got a text back that said "U can do this!! We are behind you and praying for you!" Well, needless to say I cried all the way to Hot Springs!! I was reminded of all of you that have been praying and have given words of encouragement to me over and over again!! Thank you all!! I was humbled.
Well, I put my Ipod on shuffle and it was pretty sweet on how God would bring certain songs up when I was thinking the same thing, or it was relevant to what was going on in my mind!!
One example that got me real excited about where God was leading me. It was an old Cadmeon's Call song, This World.
There's tarnish on the golden rule
And I wanna jump from this ship of fools
Show me a place where hope is young
And a people who aren't afraid to love
This world has nothing for me and this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need
This world is making me drunk on the spirits of fear.
So when he says who will go, I am nowhere near.
And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street
This world has held my hand and has led me into intolerance
But now I'm waking up, but now I'm breaking up
But now I'm making up for lost time
I listened to it 5 times in a row while driving through Salt Lake City!!
Thanks to all of you that I got to chat with today!! looking forward to chating with some more of you tomorrow!! Well, it's time for bed!! And don't worry I won't write every day!!
Letting Go and Moving on!!
Well, it's about 1:30 am the night before I leave for San Fran. What am I doing? Actually it hasn't really hit me yet that I'm actually moving. It sort of feels like I'm just going on a trip and I'll be back real soon. So here I am moving on to the next chapter of life. Several things have come up as I have prepared to leave. One is that letting go is hard to do. I just listened to a sermon on letting go and the guy said that we need to let go of what we have to grab onto whatever God has for us next. But, he also said that letting go is often messy. It's messy because we don't like to let go of what we know and letting go means we are not in control anymore. I feel like I'm letting go of my life here in Rapid and not sure where or what I'm grabbing on to. I guess that's when I need to just grab on to the promise that God knows what's coming next and that he won't let me go. So am I really grabbing hold if He already has a hold of me??
Letting go is often hard because you have to say good bye to people. This has been hard and sometimes messy. Sometimes we build up walls to make it easier to say good bye. But, I've learned again that doesn't work very well. So forgiveness and love need to come into play again. Which is hard to do. It's hard to admit you were wrong and ask for forgiveness, but keeping the friendships are worth it. Friendships are worth the pain that they sometimes cause. The joy that friendships have brought me has been undescribable. The late night conversation over a beer around a fire, the laughs about nothing at all, the jokes that no one else gets, the games of Settlers played, the sometimes silence that is shared looking out over the city or up to the star filled nights, the hours of Guitar Hero played, the meals eaten together, the prayers prayed together, the mountains climbed, the rivers kayaked, the discussions about life, God, and what it all means, and the list could go on.
But, it's time to move on............ On to whatever it is God has for all of us. Not moving on from these friendships, just moving to a different place in them. Moving on to the unknown, the mystery, the new busy city, the new people and friendships, the thing that God has placed on my heart for awhile now. I think if I didn't do it I would regret it. So here we go................ letting go and moving on. It's sometimes messy, but as a friend of mine told me that when we move on to a new chapter it is almost always for the good and we learn again to trust in our big mysteries God that we sometimes don't get but we trust anyway. We let go of our control and let God do what He wants!! It's messy, but it's good. I'm a little scared, a little sad, but really excited!!
Letting go is often hard because you have to say good bye to people. This has been hard and sometimes messy. Sometimes we build up walls to make it easier to say good bye. But, I've learned again that doesn't work very well. So forgiveness and love need to come into play again. Which is hard to do. It's hard to admit you were wrong and ask for forgiveness, but keeping the friendships are worth it. Friendships are worth the pain that they sometimes cause. The joy that friendships have brought me has been undescribable. The late night conversation over a beer around a fire, the laughs about nothing at all, the jokes that no one else gets, the games of Settlers played, the sometimes silence that is shared looking out over the city or up to the star filled nights, the hours of Guitar Hero played, the meals eaten together, the prayers prayed together, the mountains climbed, the rivers kayaked, the discussions about life, God, and what it all means, and the list could go on.
But, it's time to move on............ On to whatever it is God has for all of us. Not moving on from these friendships, just moving to a different place in them. Moving on to the unknown, the mystery, the new busy city, the new people and friendships, the thing that God has placed on my heart for awhile now. I think if I didn't do it I would regret it. So here we go................ letting go and moving on. It's sometimes messy, but as a friend of mine told me that when we move on to a new chapter it is almost always for the good and we learn again to trust in our big mysteries God that we sometimes don't get but we trust anyway. We let go of our control and let God do what He wants!! It's messy, but it's good. I'm a little scared, a little sad, but really excited!!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Transfiguration Sunday
Well, for those of you who have been around me through my decision to go to San Francisco know that I have not been totally excited or at peace about going. But, God finally showed me some things that have helped me to finally come to peace with the situation. I made my way through the motorcycles to Spearfish to go to church to see some friends. It just happened to be Transfiguration Sunday. I am like Peter. "Master, it is good for us to be herel; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijiah." I am comfortable here in Rapid City. "It is good for me to be here." Like I said before, I have a great group of friends and family that I have found difficult leaving. I feel safe here. I feel comfortable here. I have found great encouragement from those around me. God has given me rest. This has been great. We are meant to have "mountain tops." God brings them into our life to give us encouragement and rest. We get to see God in his glory, we get to feel blessed for all that God has given us. Life is good.But, God doesn't give us these mountain top times just for the heck of it. Sooner or later it is time to move. It is time to move from where we feel comfortable. It is time move into the plains and valleys. It is in these places that God calls us to help others experience their mountain tops. It is in these places that God calls us to love the unloveable and befreind the friendless. Again, I feel called to where life happens. For me this is San Francisco. Life for me is unsure. It is the unseen and unknown. What God has for me in San Fran I don't know yet. But, this is the plain and valley that I feel called to. So I will thank God for the time that He has given me to rest and feel encouraged. I thank you all for being encouragment to me. I will now move on down the mountain.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Nate Dogg's Blog
Whoopee!! I have now entered the world of blogging. What am I doing?? Anyway, I have started this blog to jounal about my move to San Franciso! Yep, San Fran. So Why am I moving to San Fran? I know a lot of people have been asking what is Nate really doing!?!?!?!? I will keep this short and sweet hopefully. I have been on quit a journey the past couple years. I finished up my time with Outlaw Ranch about 6 months ago. I loved my time there!! I miss it some days. But, my body just couldn't do it anymore. I was tired. Thank you to you all that affected my life because of our time together there. It was good.
Anyway, I have also been challenged much these past few years about how we go about doing this thing we call church. I have been rereading the gospels and thinking "what if Jesus really meant what he said?" To feed the poor, to befriend the friendless, to take in the widow, to love the unloveable, to live where life happens. In John 4 (those of you have lived around me this past year have heard me talk about this one) Jesus goes to where people need to feel loved. He goes and risks His reputation to make sure the samaritan women feels loved! He doesn't wait for her to find Him, He goes to her. Why then do we as the church expect people to always come into our space??? Why do we sit in our comfortable pews and feel safe there?? Isn't time we risk a little and get out there and actually live like Christ did. His life was certainly not safe. He risked to love.
I went through many stages including the possibility of going to Sem. to try to change things from the inside out. But, through much frustrating with the institutional church I have decided that for now I need to go and just do it.As Shane Claiborne says, "“We’re going to stop complaining about the church that we’ve seen and we’re going to be the church that we dream of……we’re going to learn to love like Christ did.” I'm done complaining, I'm done trying to convince others, I'm done talking. It is time for me to finally do. It's taken awhile, but it's finally time. So I'm moving to San Francisco.
I will be moving into a church that lives together called Church of the Sojourners. They live in 4 houses in the Mission District, a poorer neighborhood of San Fran. They combine their resources to live simply. My goal is to learn to love like Christ did. My goal is to spend my extra time and resources to help those around me. I know it sounds a little cultish, but I had the opportunity to visit in May and I really felt like this is where God wants me at this point. I have made a commitment to be there for the next year and then we'll see what happens after that. But, the church also says that we are together as long as God allows. Which means as soon as we all feel like it's time to move, it's time to move on.
I am most nervous right now about leaving my comfortable life. I have a great set of friends and family here in Rapid City which I am really struggling with leaving. But, again, it is time to move on. So here, I will "blog" about my time. If people read it great, if not that's ok too. It will a space for me to process. I will write what God is up to with me. I would love to here what God is up to with you too. So let me know!! And let me know how I can be praying for you all. I love you all. Thank for you support and love that you have given me. Thank for your understanding of my unsettled life that God seems to be leading me on. Maybe one day I'll settle somewhere for a while, but it seems like whenever I make plans, God changes them anyway. Thanks and we'll talk to ya'all real soon.
Anyway, I have also been challenged much these past few years about how we go about doing this thing we call church. I have been rereading the gospels and thinking "what if Jesus really meant what he said?" To feed the poor, to befriend the friendless, to take in the widow, to love the unloveable, to live where life happens. In John 4 (those of you have lived around me this past year have heard me talk about this one) Jesus goes to where people need to feel loved. He goes and risks His reputation to make sure the samaritan women feels loved! He doesn't wait for her to find Him, He goes to her. Why then do we as the church expect people to always come into our space??? Why do we sit in our comfortable pews and feel safe there?? Isn't time we risk a little and get out there and actually live like Christ did. His life was certainly not safe. He risked to love.
I went through many stages including the possibility of going to Sem. to try to change things from the inside out. But, through much frustrating with the institutional church I have decided that for now I need to go and just do it.As Shane Claiborne says, "“We’re going to stop complaining about the church that we’ve seen and we’re going to be the church that we dream of……we’re going to learn to love like Christ did.” I'm done complaining, I'm done trying to convince others, I'm done talking. It is time for me to finally do. It's taken awhile, but it's finally time. So I'm moving to San Francisco.
I will be moving into a church that lives together called Church of the Sojourners. They live in 4 houses in the Mission District, a poorer neighborhood of San Fran. They combine their resources to live simply. My goal is to learn to love like Christ did. My goal is to spend my extra time and resources to help those around me. I know it sounds a little cultish, but I had the opportunity to visit in May and I really felt like this is where God wants me at this point. I have made a commitment to be there for the next year and then we'll see what happens after that. But, the church also says that we are together as long as God allows. Which means as soon as we all feel like it's time to move, it's time to move on.
I am most nervous right now about leaving my comfortable life. I have a great set of friends and family here in Rapid City which I am really struggling with leaving. But, again, it is time to move on. So here, I will "blog" about my time. If people read it great, if not that's ok too. It will a space for me to process. I will write what God is up to with me. I would love to here what God is up to with you too. So let me know!! And let me know how I can be praying for you all. I love you all. Thank for you support and love that you have given me. Thank for your understanding of my unsettled life that God seems to be leading me on. Maybe one day I'll settle somewhere for a while, but it seems like whenever I make plans, God changes them anyway. Thanks and we'll talk to ya'all real soon.
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