post seven - i'm here

june 9th 2008 (monday night)

so i've just spent my first afternoonday getting acquanted with our new hartford house and the people i'll be living with for the summer. my fellow interns' names are patti, julie, and brittany. so, it ended up being the three girls to one guy ratio. i can't complain. but not for reasons some might think: i get my own room. and it's big.

i have a sweet bookshelf with a lot o fbooks already there. i only brought one book with me, which was Jesus for President, and guess what?! we'll be reading it this summer, and we'll be going to shane claiborne's event. it's on the hartford city missions homepage if you want to come... and if you want to see me, i'll probably be operating the merchandise table. come on by. we'll also be having an open house sometime toward the end of this nine week period. more details to follow. aaaand, even more news that i didn't know about: halfway through the summer, we will be retreating for a weekend to new hampshire. yay cottage in the woods! it'll be a good retreat i think.

Every saturday and sunday we have times for personal and group sabbaths. it'll be a great time to rest and to reflect on what God is doing, and probably to update y'all on this blog via posts. i got to know a lot about the people i'll be working with this summer. Julie is from california, brittany and patti both live about fifteen minutes away from where we are.

the house is BEAUTIFUL! totally not what i was expecting when i heard where we'd be staying. adrienne and the olsons would love it, and i'm sure many more of you, but those are the people i can think of now that would especially enjoy what people have done here. it's huge. three stories. fully finished basement. very nicely furnished. the walls are all awesome colors, and the rooms are coordinated well. i feel at peace in my room. it's a soothing light washed out greyish green color.

it is hot in hartford. not terrible, but pretty hot. i'm glad i have shots. it's a definite blessing.

this week we are going to have orientation with the city. tomorrow we're going shopping. but we're only allowed to take public transportation. and we only have four dollars per person, per day. it's as if we're on food stamps. tomorrow morning after i lead devotions, we're playing monopoly. (let's hope i canremain christ-like) it's supposed to demonstrate capitalism. jim (our team leader) says it's going to be played with a twist.

during our time of studying the scripture this week, our topic is the sermon on the mount. we ended tonite's time together with a litergical celtic prayer. tomorrow we're studying amos with a neighborhood bible study that meets here, and later on in the summer we'll study james.

it was easy to get here, and it only took an hour and a half. there was no traffic.

things to pray for:
- the team i am a part of, living together on the first floor. that we would be able to serve one another like Jesus, and that we would grow into tremendous friends over the course of the summer.
- that God would prepare the hearts of the people we'll encounter while we're here proclaiming the gospel.