Welcome to Living Water’s new blog, a space devoted to sharing our life together and learning more about what it means to faithfully follow Jesus on the corner of Pratt and Ashland.
To kick off our first blog post, here are some of my favorite reflections on our life together. Living Water, there are so many things I love about you:
- Receiving not just “May the peace of Christ be with you” but also “son te pheap”, “amahoro imana”, “Crist timee ma rahos” and “la paz de Cristo” every week. (That’s how we pass the peace in English, Khmer, Kirundi, Nepali, and Spanish.)
- Baptisms in Lake Michigan. Beautiful summer day ones, with beach picnics and Frisbee games stretching endlessly into the afternoon, and chilly fall ones, when the wind whips up and the baptized and the baptizers are especially brave.
- Setting up for worship on Sunday mornings while listening to the music group fine tune the worship set. Sensing the prayers of those who have gathered early in the prayer room. Appreciating the people running around setting up sound equipment, projectors, communion bread and decorations. It’s like a party just before the guests arrive.
- The happy chatter of the children and their tutors as they enter the building for the after school program and head down the hall to do homework or write stories or bake cookies or conduct science experiments.
- Greeting other LWCC-ers when we happen upon each other while out and about in the neighborhood.
- Attempting to sing Swahili along with the African choir.
- Attempting to clap in rhythm with the African choir.
- Attempting to clap in rhythm with anything.
- Cambodian eggrolls.
- That there are kids in our neighborhood who call our church “Potluck” because of the meals they’ve eaten with us.
- The dancing: Advent candle dances, Nepali Christmas dances, Cambodian Rice Harvest, Easter dances, and congregational line dances that snake through the aisles.
- Passing moving boxes through a long line of people up someone’s back stairwell and into their apartment. Many people helping a neighbor together is joyful work.
- Keeping vigil on the sidewalk with our neighbors when tragedy strikes.
- Studying the bible and praying over mugs of coffee around someone’s dining room table.
- Helping people select rescued produce to take home on Thursday afternoons, knowing lots of our neighbors will be enjoying delicious meals because of this ministry.
- Meeting with a Discernment Group to hear someone’s story: job opportunities, possible moves, potential marriages, painful family situations, relationships needing reconciliation. Seeking the Spirit’s wisdom together.
- Praying together in a symphony of languages, most of which I do not understand, and learning to trust that God is making sense of us all.
We look forward to using this space to share news and reflections on the life in our community. What are your favorite reflections? Comment below!
Thank you, all of you who are Living Water. It is a joy to serve you!
Pastor Kristin
As I pray for our church, one thing that has come to the forefront of my mind is a specific list of God’s gifts to us. I have been greatly encouraged and overwhelmed with thankfulness as I think about them. On my list are: 1) Our building – I confess I did not have great faith that the necessary resources would come together to pull it off! 2) Relationships with neighborhood kids – kids who took initiative to come into our space and continue in significant relationships with LWCC brothers & sisters. 3) An influx of believers who are newly arrived in our country – where it’s not uncommon to hear on a Sunday: “I came to the US as a refugee two weeks ago.” Why do I call them God’s gifts? (Certainly this isn’t a complete list; perhaps you can post your addtions.) Probably because these all seem to me to be unlikely things to happen, aside from input from the Author who is writing our story. Gifts are to be appreciated and shared; maybe to build our work on?
Another great part of my thankfulness is for every one of you who have “gotten busy” during this season of our church’s life: teaching Sunday school, praying, working in the nursery, leading worship, playing music, hanging with the youth, hosting events, mentoring kids, welcoming, organizing, setting up, breaking down, showing up, giving hearty handshakes, etc. With great faithfulness so many have done these and many other things to contribute to the work of our church. Thanks!!!
And one of the things I love about Living Water is YOU, Pastor Kristin–your positive spirit even though juggling a complicated and challenging pastoral role, your love of the Word and the messages you bring where I always learn something new, and your warmth and friendliness to all.
Hi, we love your church too – special warm regards to Tim and Patty, Orwin and Sally!
(Visitors from UK last summer)
Tim has a nice section on life at Living Water in his blog for The Mennonite. A list of Living Water related titles is available here: http://www.themennonite.org/public_post_categories/Living_Water_Community_Church
I recommend this one in particular: http://www.themennonite.org/bloggers/timjn/posts/Snapshots_from_Living_Water_Community