7/1 - 7/15

After a week at home for back to back weddings Jesse and I returned home to Charlotte to find things in full swing as usual. Since it has been awhile since our last post I will try to just hit some highlights. Our wonderful train hopper friends stayed for five days and we all became extremely close. They left us sadly on the Friday the 29th and have stayed in touch since on their way to Seattle. We had many so amazing conversations and fun times together and truly consider them family. Also on Monday the 25th we had our first free neighborhood cookout. That night just as we began to cook it started pouring and people kept coming so we ended up feeding around fifty or so people like 60 hotdogs, 40 hamburgers, and ten pieces of chicken. We got to know a lot of our neighbors better and even a bunch of our friends from the art community came as well. God really is blessing this simple idea of a neighborhood cookout and we greatly appreciate those who have graciously given to support this type of generosity. I wish I could say more about the already dozens of lives we are being let into and the amazing stories of each person but I don’t want to betray the many confidences we are being entrusted and trust is not an easy thing to regain. We have had three more cookouts since and things have gone incredibly well quantity in size but never in quality.
Also somewhere along the way during the last three weeks we have been making many new friends who have greatly enriched our lives as well as widened our ever increasing circle of friends. Inside the Art Warehouse (Area 15) where we often work there is a bike co-op where some civically minded bikers from around town fix up bikes (often very nice wealthy nadyme-downs) and sell them for profit in order to fund two key services. They do free bike trips every weekend for under-privileged inner city kids. They also offer free bikes to inner city kids if they go through a 6 week program one night a week where they learn bike safety, maintenance, and repair. It’s pretty sweet and we had gotten in the habit of going down and hanging out some nights, working on our bikes, and chilling with the dudes that work there and in this process we made one of our best new friends, Lee. He is just a totally rad guy and works in the city as a bike messenger and has begun to introduce us all of the many bike messengers and bike enthusiasts here in Charlotte. They call themselves the Rag Tag Armada and we are finding them to be intelligent, amiable, and inviting.
Also our inner circle has acquired two new key members. A few weeks ago while our friend Laura was visiting we met her friend Christy who happened to be looking for a new local church body and somewhere to serve more deeply in a “community that can’t financially give back” as she put it (I had to ball park the quote, sorry Christy). She spent all day with us and our train hopper friends; going to church, to the Italians ( community/church dinner), and just hanging in the neighborhood. Monday she came back and was crucial and helping pull of the first Liberation Cookout (as we have come to call them). Christy is finishing up her masters and in the weeks since we have had the priveledge of getting to know her boyfriend Russ, who is also a student. Christy lives only a few blocks north and Russ has already decided to move into the neighborhood with us. They are extremely kind, funny, and wise and their love for God is evident and they have already become critical in many major decisions we have had to make in the last few days.
And so you are up to date in general although generally speaking a week here feels like a month. So much happens every day I cannot overstate how much we would really like you all to come visit. Mondays cookout went great and Wednesday we met as a family to discuss how best to help a new friend of ours. We met her through the cookouts and she is 25 with 5 young children. She is really sweet and in a tough patch and we really desire to help her out more long term. God has really been using Lindsey in her life and we are looking to all engage and really help out so we covet your prayers there.
Also this week I had the opportunity to help one of our neighbors out. Robert is 50 and had a serious construction accident breaking both feet, legs, and ankles. It has been a year and a half since and due to the extent of the injury and lack of medical insurance and no income he cannot work and sits most days in a wheel chair outside his house. Monday I took him to run some errands and sure up some of the details of his lawsuit, which is pending regarding his accident. After his first accident he was hit by a car when crossing the road on his wheel chair and the second suit has complicated things. We had a good long talk amongst driving and he told me he would love to come visit my church but first needed to buy a new shirt cause all the ones he had are stained or ripped. I told him it didn’t matter at our church but I knew that wasn’t really the issue it was more about respect and dignity. So Saturday night after the whole gang met up with Lee for dinner we dropped by the store and attempted to by Robert a new polo shirt, we had trouble deciding so we picked him up two we all agreed had the best chance of suiting his taste. Last night his great nephew, Gary, who is 17 and becoming one of our best friends, came over and hung out with the whole gang. We had a blast and played a really fun game Lindsey taught us which had us all laughing but Gary definitely stole the show. Afterwards Gary, Lindsey, Christy, and Russ headed for their respective homes and Jesse, Jeremiah, and I decided to take our good friend mike on a late night center city bike ride. Mike has been one of our best friends since early on in high school and has been visiting for the better part of the week adding his usual and welcomed joy into the mix. We rode till 1:30 or so in the morning meeting up with a few of our newly acquired bike messenger friends and enjoying the beauty and Chaos of an unseasonably cool July night.
This morning Mike and I picked up Robert and Gary and met up there with the rest of the gang at church who had biked there. It was a great Sunday as Matt spoke on the importance of truly loving oneself in the equation of loving our neighbor. It was very powerful and he quoted several passages from 1st John as well as from a great book I read some time ago called “Blue Like Jazz”, which, I highly recommend. The whole service was great and I am sorry I can’t do a better job relating it. Afterwards we took Robert and Gary with the whole gang and us to lunch and then took Robert to the hospital for a checkup and some meds.

6/18-6/23

Monday it had been decided that we would have Carlos and his wife Arlene over for dinner. As with most things with Carlos this turned into a straight up Block Party. Our current family, which consists of Jeremiah, Jesse, myself (Aaron), and our close friends Julie who recently graduated and her younger brother Wes, had already grown a little since our friend Andrew was again visiting not to mention Brooke, Jesse’s girlfriend, was in town for a few days. Carlos invited his friend Tarik a new neighbor of an Egyptian upbringing who is a young architect in town and who is extremely burdened with bettering the lives of our neighbors. Carlos also invited his good friend Chudy who came here from Nigeria and who runs a body shop and is also an artist. We also called our friends Matt and Michelle (with whom I previously blogged about having our crew over for dinner a few weeks ago) who in turn brought two of their friends Dan and Grant. So in total our intimate shindig turned into a block party for 15. Fortunately Julie, Brook, and the rest of the gang pitched in and we had just enough kabobs and jasmine rice to go around which is especially incredible since our oven kept tripping the breaker almost getting the better of the ever-patient Julie. Jesse and Jeremiah beasted the grilling, Wes made the sweat tea, Andrew made pita chips and humus dip and I showed up last second from a hard days work just in time to pour drinks and chat everyone up. After the amazing dinner we sat around in the living room and talked about what it looks like to really help the people in our neighborhood. Carlos brought up the true point that often churches come to a neighborhood like this and give out hot dogs for a day and while this is helpful it doesn’t solve any of the lasting problems. The churches go home feeling better and stomachs are full for a night but no lasting change occurs. We continued talking about what real justice would look like. Sometimes people need financial help, sometimes they have been denied work because of broken social issues, sometimes they were raised with broken philosophies and need a true unconditional relationship, but in any case it is the call of the Christian to bring justice and mercy to those who are broken, needy, and hopeless. But no matter how big or lofty this metaphorical "hotdog" is it still is, at best, an 80 year solution. We really have no hope but Christ and there is the constant balance we try to strike between meeting the temporal need and addressing the eternal one. A hungry man can’t listen till his stomach is quieted. About halfway into this conversation our neighbor Harry-O Busted into the door. Harry-O is a sixty something retired, veteran, disabled, black man from two blocks down. We see him hobbling very amiably every day on his way past our house to ride the bus to get some fast food and liquor and it should be stated rather euphemistically that due to the constant cup in his hand and daily liquor trip that he is always “feeling good”. Harry-O has a dominating presence and he often attempts to speak in rhyming poetic verse. Harry-O took full advantage of his large crowd and honestly between the slang and spirits we only understand him about half the time. He asked what we were talking about and since Harry-O never really gives you much of an opportunity to answer the minute he heard the word Christian he went into a tongue in cheek almost mocking rhyme on being good Christian boys. We didn’t know how we should respond to his words but when he was done he said Jeremiah looked like John the Baptist and that he was gonna sit down and that someone else should talk. Out of context and culture we had no response as we presented him with 15 plastic smiles. He continued with the Harry-O show for a while; a joke, everyone laughs but none louder than himself, and then he gives everyone a high five… every time. He finally left and a discussion between Matt and the rest of us ensued past midnight. It was a meaningful discussion and we appreciated all of the wisdom that was conferred upon us.
Tuesday morning found most of us quietly sitting in the chill room each quietly reading and spending time with the Lord. The rest of the day was rather uneventful but we accomplished a lot of work at the warehouse and continue to embed ourselves in this neighborhood. However one exciting thing of note happened. Our good friend T.J. moved in permanently to visit us. He had come to visit us a few weeks ago and has decided to become a part of what we are doing and will be with us till he leaves for four months in Africa in September. He is an amazingly brilliant, softhearted and funny guy. Wednesday morning we had another addition to our fold as Carlos’ friend Levi has moved in with us for a month or so. He recently left Charlotte for JAX but he wanted to come plug back in with his ministries here till his fall semester starts back up. We had a few more beds to spare so we are more than glad to take on another guest at this time. Wednesday afternoon we lost Andrew again as he left to go back to Lynchburg and spend some time with his brother and sister-in-law before they moved to KC. So we said another temporary goodbye and then the rest of us (Me, Jesse, Jeremiah, Julie, and Wes) headed to our friends Nells and Naomi’s house for dinner. Nells is actually Scott’s (one of Watershed’s co-pastors) brother and I have known him since two summers ago when we he had first moved here to help his brother and Matt start Watershed. He also owns the custom countertop business where Jeremiah works (he is actually the only employee and he loves it). Nells and Naomi are just super pleasant and fun people and we had a great time having dinner and playing with their two children and their three dogs. It was a blast and they are such good parents and will be increasing this fold very soon as Naomi is great with child.
Thursday was another killer day and ended well with dinner at our friends John and Kayla’s (we say yes to all dinner offers). They are close friends of mine from Watershed and I was excited for them to get to know the rest of the crew. John has been teaching middle school at an inner city school a few blocks from us for sometime and this winter they decided that in order to truly minister to these kids they needed to move into the neighborhood so they left their cozy uptown apartment and moved into the neighborhood next to ours. Dinner was great and we talked for sometime about life, ministering to an underprivileged urban community, and we even gleaned some wisdom from their young marriage. It was a blast and they came over to check the place out after dinner. We only live about 5 blocks away and when we got home we found our friend Neal sitting on the steps. We had a great time hanging out and conversation and Mario-Kart lasted well past midnight.
Early friday morning Jeremiah and T.J. had decided to take the day off and went on a 40-mile bike trip to the Catawba river and back. The rest of us went to work but since Jared didn’t need me today I volunteered to help our friend Matt out. He is coordinating the Gala, which is to raise funds for the Optimist Park Neighborhood Association, which will help to better the lives of the people our neighborhood. Once we have a neighborhood association we will be able to speak publicly in governmental forums about our neighborhood and attain tax money for beautifying and other valuable projects in this community. Matt is Larry’s (the coppersmiths) assistant he is really good at organizing these crazy art parties and I helped him prepare all day building easels and painting surfaces as he wanted to do a dry run tonight for the event which happens next week. As we worked we talked a lot about what God is doing in this community and what he is teaching each of us. We talked quite a bit about Harry-O’s addition to our Monday party. Matt said he was doing slam poetry, which is a tradition in the African –American culture of standing and speaking in rhymed verse and then sitting down to another’s response. This is done in a very ecclesiastical format and Matt said he used to go to poetry slams and speak Paul’s words from the Bible in poetic slam format and thus sneak the truth into the mix. Matt told me he was ticked that he hasn’t practiced in a while because he would have loved to answer Harry-O back in kind instead of flashing another confused plastic smile. Just for the heck of it I had Matt write his poetic response to Harry-O and even though he didn’t think of it till he was laying in bed later that night I am praying that God will continue to let us love Harry-O and speak truth to him.

You sound about as Christian as an apple pie
Even Demons know the turh while they live the lie
Don't come pussy-footin round these wildcats like we're some dandy lions
You are trapsing through the garden of the Army of Zion
So go on whistling in the dark by the light of these sparks and that's your decision
But if you continue living on your own
You wouldn't find your way home if you were a Harry-O-Pigeon



This once again sparked the ongoing conversation of knowing when to let love be the language and when to speak the hard words we know this world needs to hear. All these discussions usually come to the same conclusion; we can’t get away from being spirit led. I helped Matt all day and at the end of the day our whole crew went as guinea pigs. It was a blast as about 30 of us painted and manipulated each other’s shadows onto canvas and went crazy with paint. Once again many amazing conversations ensued and Neal spent the night again. It was crazy to think that today at only our 1-month anniversary of moving in we only had one extra bed left out of our 8 still free!

Saturday began with some work and then Jeremiah, T.J., Julie, Wes, and I headed north to hangout and help out with a scavenger hunt at my old youth group in North Charlotte. It was a blast seeing my old kids and catching up as they are growing up. Saturday afternoon Jeremiah and I hung out with Harry-O he took us to his house to show us some bikes he had (he had seen us working on ours and wanted to be a proper neighbor). As we walked to his house he told all the neighbors we were his white bodyguards and we continued to invite everyone to our new weekly barbecues. We had a discussion about continuing to find balance in ministering and spending time in the different worlds we have been given (watershed, the neighborhood, and the art warehouse). So we decided to start having cookouts every Monday and inviting anyone we meet in the neighborhood. Relationships are the key and we are going to whatever lengths necessary to infiltrate this place. Later that day we biked downtown because there was a huge concert outdoors and we new we could watch for free and we honestly just love biking around uptown (downtown). We ran into some friends and T.J. and Jeremiah split off briefly. When we met back up they said they had seen some travelers digging food out of the trash and had bought them some food and given them our number incase they needed a place to stay. Travelers, for the uninitiated, are people who live homeless by choice and travel the world by hopping trains and hitchhiking. They are extremely street smart and see so much in such a short time. Both T.J. and Jeremiah were highly involved with a community of travelers in Lynchburg and had made a number of traveler friends even though the cast constantly changes. They called us an hour later as we sat with our bikes downtown and we met up and took them home to our place for the night. And thus we met Brendan, Acacia, and Sean. Brendan is originally from Miami, a piercer by trade, and 20. He has been traveling since he was 15 and met Acacia in San Diego in the past year. They have been traveling together since then and were married by another traveler a month ago. They both met Sean in Buffalo two months ago and the three have been together ever since. They are all three so kind and it didn’t take us long to be playing Mario-Kart and laughing like old friends. Before we went to sleep they were telling us of their stop a week ago in Philly. They had been staying in a squat (abandoned building known by travelers) in the extremely dangerous Westside of Philly when two other travelers, who they had briefly met named Conner and Echo, brutally killed another traveler. They were shaken up by it and since the police were arresting everyone in the vicinity who met the “traveler’s” description our three friends had been arrested and questioned for 6 hours. It also just so happened that fox news was getting helicopter footage of the event and Brendan showed us the actual helicopter footage of them getting arrested. This led to a sweet discussion about how precious life is and the inevitability of death. We gave Brendan and Acacia the Chill room and Sean took one of the open beds in our bedroom and thus ended a quite eventful Saturday.

6/11-6/17

Monday- Monday was fun filled as usual, this do in great part to the fact that Mama Rund was still visiting. Her impending departure on Tuesday was on all our minds, and she, as well as all of us wanted her to be able to experience Charlotte for all that it is. On Saturday, as you have already heard, we played a show in Roxboro and afterwards were approached by a young boy named Tavis who wanted us to sign our autographs on the copy of our CD he had acquired. He turned also to Lindsey asking for her autograph, but instead she asked him to sign her arm. Tavis had inspired all of us through getting to know him and hearing his story. He was born very prematurely and his family was told that he would not live very long and that he would never talk or walk. And now Tavis is a talking, horseback riding young man, and with one more surgery will be able to walk. So to finish my previous thought; one thing Mama Rund had never experienced was someone getting a tattoo. So we went and she got a little one. Just kidding, Lindsey wanted to have the signature Tavis had signed on her arm tattooed permanently because of the inspiration and meaning the story held, and so she did. All day and on the way there Mama Rund seemed pumped and ready for the adventure, but once we arrived and breeched the door of the tattoo parlor everything changed. She immediately went into “Mom Mode” and started freaking out. She complained of being hot but she was the only one who felt even remotely hot. But she endured the event, and then we all went and grabbed some ice cream across the street. Our beloved friend Andrew also met up with us Saturday at the show and it has been great spending time with him.

Tuesday- Tuesday was a sad day indeed seeing as how the time had come to send our beloved Mama Rund home. She was a joy to have here with us, she and her family are a blessing to all who they come in contact with, and have meant a great deal to Aaron, Jeremiah, and I. WE MISS YOU MAMA RUND!!! The day was pretty typical Aaron, Jeremiah and I all went to work in the morning and when we came home we spent the last few hours we could with Mama Rund then all went out to Azteca (an amazing Mexican Resturant) for dinner before taking her to the airport. Tuesday night TJ and I left for Lynchburg. He needed a ride back and I wanted to spend sometime with Brooke. We got in late after a small few hour voyage that consisted of some conversation, and a few “Godspeed...” ballads. It was amazing to see Brooke!!!

Wednesday- Wednesday began lazily. When I got up me and TJ went down to the Thor Construction Factory and hung out for a bit. Catching back up with some friends while also meeting some knew ones. After that we went out to the property our friend Tyler lives on which in quite breathtaking. To me it seemed like a little slice of west Virginia paradise transplanted into Lynchburg. So we spent some time hanging out with him and his dog “Diggity” Before returning back into the city. After Brooke got out of class I met up with her and we spent the afternoon together. When she left for work TJ and I met up with our buddy Andrew and a few other friends to enjoy a nice home cooked meal together. It was goodtimes. That night we watched the “Vice Guide to Travel” which was a very informative and crazy look at some cultures and locations across the globe that few people travel to.

Thursday- Thursday morning Brooke and I went to Biscuitville for spme breakfast. I mean how could we not. Afterwards I caught back up with TJ because Brooke had a summer term final. We cruised around and took care of a few loose ends and then went on to campus for a bit (Liberty that is). We caught up with our good friend George and spent some time sharing what has been taking place in our lives as well as critiquing and recommending some of our new musical finds. I spent the rest of the evening with Brooke, which was amazing just being able to snuggle up on the couch and talk. Meaning while down south Julie and Lindsey road tripped down to Georgia to pick up Wes, Julie's little brother who has since been living with us. They hit a mess load of traffic but eventually where able to find their way back to the “Q.C.”.

Friday- On Friday me and Brooke got up and headed back to Charlotte. I convinced Brooke that it would be a good idea for her to come down here seeing how she had been stuck in Lynchburg forever and also Charlotte always has a plethora of things to do, and Lynchburg kinda doesn't, especially when all the college students are gone. So a little over three hours later we arrived and I began showing her around. We first went to the house and I gave her the tour. Then we left and headed over to Tremont Music Hall to see our very good friends in “Love and Reverie” play. It was a great night and it was a blast catching up with all of them.

Saturday- On Saturday I awoke to my phone ringing, which on the other end held one girlfriend very anxious and ready to experience and soak in the city I now call home. And that is just what we did. We explored down town, went through NODA, enjoying some time at “Freedom Park” (and crazy enough stumble upon a wedding there). For dinner we went back into the city and ate a very nice meal. After dinner we cruised around a bit more and then went back to the house and all of us ended up going to our neighbors Kevin and Kobe's house to watch a movie.

Sunday- We woke up and went to church. Jeremiah and Aaron played in the band, and it was hilarious watching them try to “throw down” to some Michelle Branch. Afterwards we all went out to eat at Camille's the new place that everyone meets after “transit” (our Sunday morning service). The afternoon was just your typical lazy Sunday comprised of everyone falling in and out of sleep. Later that evening we all headed over to “Italians” at our friend Jostens house. It was great as usual, and many laughs were shared.

Here are a few pics, there will be more to come...
-Jesse