Neighbors/Yahoo Group

I was going to write this post about Orientation Concepts like Safety, Hospitality, and whatnot... But after my conversation with Rachel, I want to take a moment to greet.

Welcome to this messy blog. This, along with our Yahoo! Group, is the main way that we connect with info about what's going on in the GrubbyKupp Community. Check out the Yahoo Group: "Grubby_Kupp". Try clicking on the title of this blog.

Our community is often ashamed to use that word for all the pretension that the term has accrued over the years, as Wonderful strugglers have failed forward in Grace, showing their soft underbelly to the world, trying to embody the Master and His sermon on the mount...
But a community is what we are. The word comes from Latin, and means, "Ones who share their food". We are a table fellowship, incorporating preparation, eating, and cleanup into almost all of our scheduled events. Fasting isn't very popular among us. We are eaters... Community.

This blog is written almost exclusively by Lew, whose blog, Lewminator, is a vent for thoughts that have no venue in polite company... I am Lew, and i'm silly, writing in 3rd person... Let's get back to reality...

Yesterday afternoon was spent in a fashion that has become typical. JP runs Daisy (his 400pound energy dog of slobber), kids play in the back yard, Lew yells at kids to get off the cars, a visitor to us for a few days has an Audi and kids are using it as a shelf for their bike inner tubes... oh yeah, we're fixing three bikes--or four... There are bike parts everywhere...

Little D is running around with Seth. Seth has peeledhis shirt and is shoeless... I've seen Seth walk over broken autoglass without picking up a piece. Thank you God for protection and wise design...

Lew is yelling at kids to behave.

a neighbor dad/boyfriend comes to the fence and greets me again as Mr. Ross. I tell him that between us, I'm just old "brotha Lew". It breaks a dam and out pours one of the most healing conversations that I've ever had.

I get a call that tells me that the neighbors have come together to meet about ousting a family--Monty and Maurice's family. You go look through the archives--you'll see these guys. Look at Lewminator and check out my flickr. Look at the Yahoo Group today--that's little J. He's their little nephew... Tina, the mom, our friend, works day in and day out at Kroger for the lowest wage.

What is the minimum wage? ...and what is a living wage? Tina is a hard worker, and with a little time, and a little help from some of you, she may work for 9.00 starting at our thrift store... That is, if she doesn't get her housing revoked. The neighbors hate them because the kids have, for example, shot out car windows in front of their house, from the porch, with a BB gun. Stolen stuff. Broken stuff.

They are our neighbors and we want to keep them. They are hated on all sides, but we really really love them. We are really afraid to lose them because these boys aren't ready to go out there yet. They need to be discipled more.
They were baptized under compulsion by the local small mission church, but have no discipleship. Calvinism says just do it and let God deal with the mess.
Well He's trying, but we all have to work all the time, and these guys just get scraps. And they are hated. But we love them.

and then I had to stop and yell at some kids to get off the ROOF of the neighboring storage buildings, again. If they fall through those old tin roofs, they're gonna get cut up bad.

The Chase House is surrounded--surrounded on two sides by buildings that could be condemned with a phone call. Three buildings like that. Dangerous. And the kids are always climbing.
The playground is risky, though nice. We hope to inhabit it and displace the drug trade from that corner--the same corner where we held a funeral two nights ago.

I went into the house and did family, yelling at my own kids and having the best Bible time in a long time with my 11yr old. He got mugged last winter pretty bad. We engaged, forgave, preached, forgave, loved and loved. That's our formula. And I spent yesterday afternoon watching him pump up the bike tires of the boy who mugged him. My 11 year old is a profoundly effective missionary of Christ's love.

and i love life.

in recent days we've had a funeral, taken knives off the street, heard shots, seen the news...

and we love life.

we're in debt, out of time, behind schedule, over par, a day late, a dollar short... in over our heads...

and we love life.
because He who named Himself LifeItself, has loved us and through us, almost accidentally, is loving our neighbors into the Kingdom of Heaven.

that healing conversation included comments about how we aren't any experts, telling people like they don't know. heck, we all know about Jesus enough to believe. the bro said that we SHOW love, so people KNOW love, and it's changed his whole perspective on life.

i told him that he already has more Jesus than most pastors... he is not far from the Kingdom of God.

do you know how much we love you?

Tell the Truth.
Say your prayers.
--Bonhoeffer.