18 December 2008
07 December 2008
a new year coming
our house is forever in transition, but we only grow with each other in the LORD because of it, as He teaches us how to live with change.
we haven't written on this blog for quite a number of months, and for that we are sincerely sorry. much has happened in that time that has made us focus on other things than updating this here blog.
lindsey beach and ben kaspar moved out of Our House September 1st. they both still live in Wallingford -- our friendly, little neighborhood. ben now lives with two friends in a small house with a big front yard, and lindsey lives with five other women in a house with a big back yard. with their departure came Kaylee's arrival who cory and abby met earlier in the spring through a dear friend and professor, Dr. Kathleen Braden.
in October, our friends Torin Schaafsma and John Hyde moved into the house. so, there has been seven of us living here since October [Cory, Abby, Greg, Shantel, Kaylee, Torin and John]. cory, abby and kaylee are still students at Seattle Pacific University, so they have been focusing on school this quarter. Cory and Kaylee will be graduating this year, and Abby will be graduating next fall hopefully.
Our House has taken up having soup nights every Friday night. we invite our friends and hope people bring in others that we haven't met. this has become our "community dinner". we miss having potluck dinner-style though, so we're considering changing soup nights to our normal community dinner like last year.
tomorrow night is an important house meeting for us, because it will be the last time we will all be together for quite awhile. Abby is leaving with her fiance Jacob [that's right. they're engaged and are getting married in June 2009!] for her parents' homes in Indiana; they will only be gone for five days though. Cory will be leaving for Michigan to spend the holidays with his family; he will be gone for one whole month! Torin will be going home for the month and most of January in preparation to leave for Columbia for two years, where he will be working with the Seattle Mennonite Central Committee. we will miss you torin!! Greg, Kaylee, John and Shantel will be around Seattle for December though.
two weeks ago, we got to have dinner at the Mustard Seed House and were graced with the presence of Tom and Christine Sine, Eliacin and Ricci Kilmer and their two children Catie and Gabriel, Dustin and Joy Cross, Judy and a friend of the Sines. at our house, we hosted a new theology professor at SPU, Mike Langford and his wife Kelly and daughter Hannah. they just had another baby who they named Seth. he's only a couple weeks old. Congratulations family! the Langford's have become an important part in some of our lives here at Our house. they're a beautiful family that has taught us a lot about community. we're hoping to have more professors and friends over for house dinners more next quarter.
hopefully there will be more frequent posts to come.
live in love.
we haven't written on this blog for quite a number of months, and for that we are sincerely sorry. much has happened in that time that has made us focus on other things than updating this here blog.
lindsey beach and ben kaspar moved out of Our House September 1st. they both still live in Wallingford -- our friendly, little neighborhood. ben now lives with two friends in a small house with a big front yard, and lindsey lives with five other women in a house with a big back yard. with their departure came Kaylee's arrival who cory and abby met earlier in the spring through a dear friend and professor, Dr. Kathleen Braden.
in October, our friends Torin Schaafsma and John Hyde moved into the house. so, there has been seven of us living here since October [Cory, Abby, Greg, Shantel, Kaylee, Torin and John]. cory, abby and kaylee are still students at Seattle Pacific University, so they have been focusing on school this quarter. Cory and Kaylee will be graduating this year, and Abby will be graduating next fall hopefully.
Our House has taken up having soup nights every Friday night. we invite our friends and hope people bring in others that we haven't met. this has become our "community dinner". we miss having potluck dinner-style though, so we're considering changing soup nights to our normal community dinner like last year.
tomorrow night is an important house meeting for us, because it will be the last time we will all be together for quite awhile. Abby is leaving with her fiance Jacob [that's right. they're engaged and are getting married in June 2009!] for her parents' homes in Indiana; they will only be gone for five days though. Cory will be leaving for Michigan to spend the holidays with his family; he will be gone for one whole month! Torin will be going home for the month and most of January in preparation to leave for Columbia for two years, where he will be working with the Seattle Mennonite Central Committee. we will miss you torin!! Greg, Kaylee, John and Shantel will be around Seattle for December though.
two weeks ago, we got to have dinner at the Mustard Seed House and were graced with the presence of Tom and Christine Sine, Eliacin and Ricci Kilmer and their two children Catie and Gabriel, Dustin and Joy Cross, Judy and a friend of the Sines. at our house, we hosted a new theology professor at SPU, Mike Langford and his wife Kelly and daughter Hannah. they just had another baby who they named Seth. he's only a couple weeks old. Congratulations family! the Langford's have become an important part in some of our lives here at Our house. they're a beautiful family that has taught us a lot about community. we're hoping to have more professors and friends over for house dinners more next quarter.
hopefully there will be more frequent posts to come.
live in love.
21 July 2008
transitions and guests
it has been a long while since i have posted anything on our blog. my apologies to anyone who checks it and is continually disappointed.
our house has been going through a huge time of transition. as you know, we are knee-deep in summer fun and long hours of work. Ben is still working at Pagliacci Pizza and being a "fellow" for the Obama '08 campaign. Lindsey is interning for a low-income housing organization here in Seattle. Cory is taking some classes at Seattle Central Community College to get some extra credits in, all the while interning for Food Lifeline. Greg is working at Gregg's Cycles still and I am still working as a nanny for the family i have been working for for two years now. However, that is not the end of our list. Two friends moved into our house in June, Shantel and Becky.
Shantel is from Puyallip, WA and Becky is from Bellevue, WA. Shantel is a barista at Peets Coffee & Tea on Queen Anne. Becky works as a nanny like I do. Shantel went to SPU and has decided to discontinue her time there and is thinking about living with us next year here at OurHouse. Becky graduated from SPU this spring and will be moving into her own apartment in about two weeks, which she's really excited about.
We have decided to renew our lease on the house we've been living in this year. However, we are unsure of who exactly will be living here. Each of us are trying to hear from the LORD and figure stuff out all the while desiring to be in community always. so we'll keep you updated about what's going on once we know more. We have been meeting with a couple friends, Virginia and Ryan who desire to live here. We don't want to make any decisions based on seniority, so we have decided to take a step back and re-live our first springtime together. that was before we were even living together. we all met together weekly and sought counsel and the LORD's voice together, and those who felt that the LORD wanted them to live here eventually moved in. we just want the LORD to decide who should be here next year instead of us who have lived together for almost a year.
june and july were big GUEST months. in one week in june, right after finals at SPU, we had about 12 people come in and out over a period of about ten days. this last weekend, we had two very special guests - friends of a dear friend of ours, Rachel Liberto. rae left seattle for yoga school in california and then arizona to start a community in Douglass, AZ with a quaker couple by the Mexico border. she met two girls at the yoga school who quickly became her friends. they notified her that they were coming to seattle and wondered if she knew of anywhere they could stay. she thought of us and they arrived last friday night. Jessica and Brynn were wonderful people to meet, and in a way, they brought Rae back to us with their new memories of her.
Shantel left today for a family reunion in cleveland, ohio for two weeks, and a friend from Grand Valley State University in Michigan arrives tomorrow to stay for a week. so, as usual in the summer, some of us leave and more visitors come to take their places for awhile.
blessings friend,
abby
our house has been going through a huge time of transition. as you know, we are knee-deep in summer fun and long hours of work. Ben is still working at Pagliacci Pizza and being a "fellow" for the Obama '08 campaign. Lindsey is interning for a low-income housing organization here in Seattle. Cory is taking some classes at Seattle Central Community College to get some extra credits in, all the while interning for Food Lifeline. Greg is working at Gregg's Cycles still and I am still working as a nanny for the family i have been working for for two years now. However, that is not the end of our list. Two friends moved into our house in June, Shantel and Becky.
Shantel is from Puyallip, WA and Becky is from Bellevue, WA. Shantel is a barista at Peets Coffee & Tea on Queen Anne. Becky works as a nanny like I do. Shantel went to SPU and has decided to discontinue her time there and is thinking about living with us next year here at OurHouse. Becky graduated from SPU this spring and will be moving into her own apartment in about two weeks, which she's really excited about.
We have decided to renew our lease on the house we've been living in this year. However, we are unsure of who exactly will be living here. Each of us are trying to hear from the LORD and figure stuff out all the while desiring to be in community always. so we'll keep you updated about what's going on once we know more. We have been meeting with a couple friends, Virginia and Ryan who desire to live here. We don't want to make any decisions based on seniority, so we have decided to take a step back and re-live our first springtime together. that was before we were even living together. we all met together weekly and sought counsel and the LORD's voice together, and those who felt that the LORD wanted them to live here eventually moved in. we just want the LORD to decide who should be here next year instead of us who have lived together for almost a year.
june and july were big GUEST months. in one week in june, right after finals at SPU, we had about 12 people come in and out over a period of about ten days. this last weekend, we had two very special guests - friends of a dear friend of ours, Rachel Liberto. rae left seattle for yoga school in california and then arizona to start a community in Douglass, AZ with a quaker couple by the Mexico border. she met two girls at the yoga school who quickly became her friends. they notified her that they were coming to seattle and wondered if she knew of anywhere they could stay. she thought of us and they arrived last friday night. Jessica and Brynn were wonderful people to meet, and in a way, they brought Rae back to us with their new memories of her.
Shantel left today for a family reunion in cleveland, ohio for two weeks, and a friend from Grand Valley State University in Michigan arrives tomorrow to stay for a week. so, as usual in the summer, some of us leave and more visitors come to take their places for awhile.
blessings friend,
abby
21 May 2008
11 May 2008
creations
Scott Erickson is a friend of ours and has been for almost a year now. I met Scott at the 2007 World Vision Acting on AIDS conference in Illinois, where he painted during the worship services. At that time, however, I didn't know he was from Seattle. Then, a year later, I decided to check out Sanctuary Church in Greenwood [where Cory, Ben and I go to worship on most Sunday mornings], and I found Scott painting during the service.
I invited Scott to paint at an Acting on AIDS benefit show that I was putting on, along with the rest of SPU's Acting on AIDS leadership team. Scott completed two paintings during the show, and I was able to purchase one and bring it home. This painting is of a girl who has AIDS and is living here in Seattle. As a leadership team, this year AoA has been focusing on getting to know people who have HIV and are living with AIDS right here in our city. We have come to realize that AIDS is prevalent locally, not just in Africa or India. So at the show one evening autumn quarter, Scott painted two paintings: one of a young boy in Africa who has been orphaned because his parents had AIDS and died, and the other painting of a girl that we could know in our own city that has AIDS.
This was painted by Scott during Church today at Sanctuary. He started painting some orange wispy lines, and Cory and I looked at each other and agreed that we already loved the painting. I don't know what Scott saw when he painted this, but I'll tell you what I saw. A boy looks at the city, some buildings and sees the system that is so prevalent in society today. But he is instead consumed with the Almighty, the Holy Spirit. The boy keeps his eye on the system, making himself aware of its false powers, but he knows the truth. He knows that it is G-d in the Holy Spirit who has all of the true power.
Check out Scott's upcoming work and blog at http://transpireproject.wordpress.com/ He has three shows this week in Seattle and then will be partnering with AoA World Vision at the 2008 Acting on AIDS Summit that is in D.C. this year.
Scott and his wife, Holly are also a part of our mentor's church that is being planted right now, called Awake. check out awakeseattle.blogspot.com
cheers,
abby
I invited Scott to paint at an Acting on AIDS benefit show that I was putting on, along with the rest of SPU's Acting on AIDS leadership team. Scott completed two paintings during the show, and I was able to purchase one and bring it home. This painting is of a girl who has AIDS and is living here in Seattle. As a leadership team, this year AoA has been focusing on getting to know people who have HIV and are living with AIDS right here in our city. We have come to realize that AIDS is prevalent locally, not just in Africa or India. So at the show one evening autumn quarter, Scott painted two paintings: one of a young boy in Africa who has been orphaned because his parents had AIDS and died, and the other painting of a girl that we could know in our own city that has AIDS.
This was painted by Scott during Church today at Sanctuary. He started painting some orange wispy lines, and Cory and I looked at each other and agreed that we already loved the painting. I don't know what Scott saw when he painted this, but I'll tell you what I saw. A boy looks at the city, some buildings and sees the system that is so prevalent in society today. But he is instead consumed with the Almighty, the Holy Spirit. The boy keeps his eye on the system, making himself aware of its false powers, but he knows the truth. He knows that it is G-d in the Holy Spirit who has all of the true power.
Check out Scott's upcoming work and blog at http://transpireproject.wordpress.com/ He has three shows this week in Seattle and then will be partnering with AoA World Vision at the 2008 Acting on AIDS Summit that is in D.C. this year.
Scott and his wife, Holly are also a part of our mentor's church that is being planted right now, called Awake. check out awakeseattle.blogspot.com
cheers,
abby
08 May 2008
GREG!
OurHouse has a new housemate and member: Greg Jones!
Greg is a recent graduate of Seattle Pacific University and has been a friend of ours for a couple years now. He majored in music [percussion] at SPU, and is trying to find a job recording music in Seattle. Currently, he's employed at Gregg's Cycles in Greenlake, working as a bike mechanic. He's our hero, because he can help us all on our bikes. Ok [since the others know a lot about bikes], he can help ME on my bike. :) We're really excited that Greg is living with us. He's getting up for breakfast with us most mornings, which isn't easy all the time, and he looks forward to our house meetings each week, because it's a time where we can all be together humbly, open and vulnerable.
Come over and meet Greg. He's great. Oh, and if you like playing the drums, Greg will probably be playing his drum set when you come over and would like to let you have a turn. :)
Also on the horizon...there will probably be a friend or two living with us for the summer and then finding other housing in the autumn. If you would, please be in prayer about our upcoming conversations with our landlord, and also that G-d would be leading the decisions that we make here in OurHouse.
Peace and blessings,
abby
Greg is a recent graduate of Seattle Pacific University and has been a friend of ours for a couple years now. He majored in music [percussion] at SPU, and is trying to find a job recording music in Seattle. Currently, he's employed at Gregg's Cycles in Greenlake, working as a bike mechanic. He's our hero, because he can help us all on our bikes. Ok [since the others know a lot about bikes], he can help ME on my bike. :) We're really excited that Greg is living with us. He's getting up for breakfast with us most mornings, which isn't easy all the time, and he looks forward to our house meetings each week, because it's a time where we can all be together humbly, open and vulnerable.
Come over and meet Greg. He's great. Oh, and if you like playing the drums, Greg will probably be playing his drum set when you come over and would like to let you have a turn. :)
Also on the horizon...there will probably be a friend or two living with us for the summer and then finding other housing in the autumn. If you would, please be in prayer about our upcoming conversations with our landlord, and also that G-d would be leading the decisions that we make here in OurHouse.
Peace and blessings,
abby
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