lifeasmission
exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same
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Archive of "friends" Category
Rozko Update | Feb., 2010
Amy and I are both networkers through and through. Each of us has enjoyed cultivating networks and communities of friends in the various places we have lived across the US and abroad. These are people who have helped, encouraged, shaped, and loved us. Because we want to do what we can to stay in touch with these people (you?), we’ve decided to compile a 1-page letter about every other month that highlights what’s been going on, what’s coming up, matters in which we hope you will rejoice with us, and others in which we hope you will support us in prayer.
We got our first one out in the last few days. If you didn’t receive it, there are 2 possible reasons.
1) We had no idea you might be interested in receiving it.
2) We tried to send it to you, but must have had the wrong email address.
In either case, if you didn’t receive our letter and would like to, leave a comment or drop us an email via the contact page and we will add you to the list of folks that we email these letters to.
Thanks for continuing to allow us to share our lives with our – nothing means more. We’re also hopeful that this might be a pathway to more of you sharing what is going on in your lives as well.
Click the image below to download our first letter.
Malone Thanksgiving 2009
Last weekend was the annual Malone Thanksgiving – the 5th since I started blogging (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
There was a twist this year. After a decade of gathering at the Hurst household, as our community has grown by marriage and birth, it seemed like a change of venue was in order. Thanks to the searching labors of a few friends, we decided on the Tara Lodge in Hocking Hills outside of Columbus. The place was amazing: 7 bedrooms, HD projector theater system, ping pong tables, pool table, darts, karaoke set-up complete w/ guitars, huge yard, hiking trails, hot tub, and on and on. Basically an amazing place for us to gather.Here are some pictures from the weekend.
And some videos.
Like every year, there were some dear friends who weren’t able to make it and they were missed, but a good time was had by all as we reconnected, shared the things we were most thankful for in the last year, and chatted about the future. With more and more kids being born into this community of friends, this was the first year that we really started thinking about what this gathering will be like when it’s our kids, and not us, who are most excited about playing the annual football game. Weird to think about.
These continue to be some of the most important and special people in my life making this one of my most looked forward to weekends of the year.
Mi Amigo Manuel – Neighborliness Lives!
I stopped by a thrift store yesterday and was amazed to find a desk that matches one we got a few weeks ago at different thrift store. It was cheap and we had a spot for it, so I bought it.
Now, the other one fit in the back of my car… snug, but fit just fine, so I assumed this one would as well. I was wrong, it’s a little bit taller. So there I am, trying to jimmy this thing into the back seat of my Maxima and 2 Hispanic guys who worked there (risking their jobs by doing so) were trying to help.
I had given up hope when one of these guys pointed to his truck and held out his keys for me to take.
Uh…
He didn’t speak a word of English and the Spanish I know just wasn’t getting the job done. Nevertheless, this guy, who didn’t know me from Adam, straight up gave me the keys to his truck and his insurance card. I let him know that I could be back in “veinte minutos,” and he just replied, “Si, veinte minutos, bueno.”
So there ya go, neighborliness at its finest. He wouldn’t take any of the money I offered him to say thanks and I’d go back and let his boss know, but he’d probably get fired for being awesome.
Muchas gracias Manuel, muchas gracias mi amigo!
An Engagement Trip
Thanks to the generosity of Amy’s team leader and co-workers, she was given the opportunity to work remotely for the last two weeks. Throw in three weekends, and you’ve got almost 3 full weeks together!
And thanks to some too-good-to-be-true family and friends, that time was jam packed full of fun and memories.
If you missed it, be sure to check out our engagement story, cause that’s where the fun began.
Engaged on Friday night in Chicago, we drove back to Memphis on Saturday, on the phone virtually the entire time and dreaming about our wedding and honeymoon inbeetween (details on both, TBA).
A neighbor gifted Amy and I with two tickets to see “Light in the Piazza” at the Midtown Playhouse. It was a fun and romantic show and we had a great time.
There was a blizzard in Memphis Saturday and Sunday, so attendance was way down at our morning services, but two of my co-pastor friends took it upon themselves to announce Amy and I’s engagement from up front to much applause and congratulations. We spent the rest of the day with our friends taking turns holding baby Asher.
On Monday Amy and I were off to Washington DC. We were there for a church planting conference and had the chance to stay a couple nights with Amy’s aunt and uncle as well as see a few friends we each have there.
Amy was there as a representative of iTeams - making connections with those who are looking for ways to help people get involved in international missions, and I was checking into Ecclesia as a possible resource and partner for Living Hope as we think about church planting. The conference was fantastic and we were really happy to connect with our friend and Fuller professor, Eddie Gibbs. Got to see some of the city on Friday afternoon and then we were off to Ohio.
My mom picked us up at the airport and after visiting for a few hours – it was lights out as we were both dog-tired. Saturday morning we traveled down to Canton to see some of my closest friends. We spent the day with them, talking all kinds of wedding details and just catching up. Monday the 9th was to be my 30th birthday so my friends arranged a dinner and a party at my friend Jay’s sweet new downtown office. Tons of people came to meet Amy, say congratulations, and Happy Birthday. As usual, I got sick on Sarah’s puppy chow, but well worth it.
Sunday was another full day of cruising around, meeting, and catching up with people – Meysembourgs, Snavely, Solida’s, Neftzer, Gouglers, and many others.
Monday was a full day with my mom and other family. Amy got the grand tour of Stow, where I grew up and got to meet both my Aunt Fannie and Grandma Ernsberger.
Had an incredible dinner at Macaroni Grill with my buddy Kenny and then ice cream, cake (actually Boston Cream Pie – a personal fav!), and a few gifts back at home. Amy had written to all my closest family and friends asking for pictures and short blurbs and she compiled them all together into one of the most meaningful presents I have ever received.
We left early Tuesday morning to head back to Memphis where we were set to have a slightly more regular schedule. Amy was working and so was I and thanks to the generosity of our good friend Lee, we had an extra car to use to help each of us get around to appointments and meeting spots. Still, the days and evenings were packed.
Tuesday we picked up the car from Lee, gobbled down dinner, and Skyped about all sorts of wedding related stuff with Amy’s parents. Wednesday we cooked dinner and hosted my house group – that never ends early (which I love!). Thursday the Donahoe’s, who host Amy when she comes to town, invited us and our friends Matthew and Lisa over for a celebration dinner and then we caught Slumdog Millionaire with Greg and Chandler.
We did lots of wedding planning on Friday and then my friend Ryan from LA flew into town to spend a few days with us. We took him to Rendezvous to get some good Memphis BBQ and then watched The Dark Knight (it just never gets old).
The night was rounded off with a midnight run to Gibson’s donuts for the after 11 – 6 donuts for 1.25 deal. Saturday morning we met our friends the Kerrigan’s at Memphis’ best breakfast spot, Brother Juniper’s and then drove around some of the cooler neighborhoods in urban Memphis and even visited an estate sale.
Ryan and I went for a quick run and then the three of us went to see “Race to Witch Mountain.” No, not because any of us particularly care for “The Rock,” but because Amy was in it. She did some extra work while she was in LA and in the movie you get to see her twice during the credits. Have a look!
Sunday morning was filled with plenty of congratulations since it was the first time that many people got to see Amy and I since we had gotten engaged. Ryan, Amy and I had a great lunch with our friends Zach and Liz and then we spent a few hours (she went nuts!) with Liz as she took some engagement pictures (not currently available). We actually ended up being late for a surprise engagement party that my house group was throwing for us in the form of an ultimate frisbee game.
We had a great time playing frisbee and then I had the privilege of baptizing a new friend who is on his way of to Fuller.
We spent the evening over at the Kerrigan’s eating up all the leftovers from the folks who have been providing them food while they adjust to having a newborn in their lives and playing everyone’s favorite game, “… And a bottle of wine.”
While I was at staff meeting Monday morning, Amy and Ryan worked from a coffee shop in the Cooper-Young district and got to check out another great BBQ spot – Central. We went downtown for a few hours to check out some of the sights and walk down Beale St. before Ryan had to had to the airport to head for home. Amy and I had yet another great dinner with our friends Sam and Allison and then made a short little video for our wedding website (unveiling soon!).
I just put Amy on the Megabus back to Chicago a little bit ago and I miss her already. While we are bound and determined not to let it take over our relationship, the next several months will be filled with planning and preparation for our big days and those to follow. We cover all your support and prayers as we try and figure out the future together and plan for a celebration of marriage that will be both enjoyable and meaningful to all those who can celebrate with us.
Missional vs. Attractional Equipping
As a pastor, I spend a lot of my time thinking about and actually attempting “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up,” – equipping.
Sadly, the extents to which ministry has been professionalized, consumerism and individualism have distorted our notions of the gospel, and Christendom has undermined the nature and purpose of the church, often serve to confuse us as to what this actually means.
In attractional models of church, many are satisfied with merely finding people to fill slots so that stuff gets done. Others lay guilt trips on people for not serving enough. But even when we do the right thing of helping people discover their giftedness and passions and then inviting them into opportunities where those life-giving things might find expression, we often have a view toward the external mastery and refinement of skills and talents so that their use of them will “attract others.”
I would never say that getting better at what you enjoy doing is a bad thing, but I would say that missionally, the equipping of others has mainly to do with cultivating spiritual maturity so that gifts and passions may be stewarded well not with being polished and excellent by socio-cultural standards.
Case in point…
Last night I and several others of my house group had the opportunity to serve at Calvary Rescue Mission in downtown Memphis. This is an organization that serves homeless and displaced men by providing food, substance abuse recovery, and the deep love of Jesus. When we go, we get to help serve food and one of us is invited to share a message. Last night, my friend Sam had the chance to share.
On Thursday I called him and we talked a bit about what was on his heart and what he was planning on sharing. He expressed some nervousness about feeling “qualified to teach form the Bible.” To which I replied with something like, “That’s probably the very thing that actually does qualify you to do this.”
Sam doesn’t have a Bible degree. He’s relatively new to the whole church scene. And he’s certainly not accustomed to preaching regularly. But, Sam shared from his heart last night what God has been teaching him through his study of the book of James and the ways in which Jesus is becoming more and more real to him everyday. Sam (and I’m sure he’s cool with me saying this) is not the sort of speaker that your average church community would put up on stage week in and week out, but sadly it has nothing to do with his not being spiritually equipped to teach. Rather it’s on account of his inability to entertainingly capture the attention of celebrity-driven, linear thinking, consumer-oriented folks (I don’t excuse myself from often falling into this category).
In the same sort of vein, one of our friends from the mission sang a solo. His voice was not good. He had absolutely no stage presence. And he wore a sweatshirt that read, “Jesus is Awesome.” Again, this is not the sort of guy your average church would want leading others in worship, but is has nothing whatsoever to do with him not being spiritually equipped to do so and everything to do with our misconceptions of what it means to be equipped.
Despite their cultural-defined techincal inabilities, grace, hope and love overflowed from both Sam and our soloist friend. All those present left encouraged and changed as Jesus met with us through the ministry of these two guys. It grieves me to think of how often we miss out on the ways in which God uses those we would never expect (or perhaps more shamefully, prefer).
5 Days, 4 States, and All Kinds of Goodness
Time to come clean. I can hide no longer. The Amy G. I have mentioned and interviewed, well… we’re actually a couple. I know, never saw it coming did ya?! That being said…
This was a whirlwind of a Valentine’s Day weekend for us. Though Amy has traveled all over the world & lived in both Los Angeles and Chicago, she had never been to NYC. My brother and his girlfriend live there, so for Christmas, I got Amy 2 tickets to the city. But, as has been the case with all our other times being together, we sought to pack as much in as we possible could.
Our journey began in Indianapolis where I got to meet some of her close college friends as well as a bunch of people she used to work with at Global Partners. Then, we traveled to NYC where we were able to spend time not only with my brother and his girlfriend, but 2 of my good friends who were in from OH and DC.
We took the Staten Island Ferry to view the Statue of Liberty.
Saw ground zero.
The flat iron building.
And went to the top of the Empire State building – an unforgettable experience!
We also got to see Grand Central Station and Time Square.
For Valentines Day dinner, my brother managed to get reservations at a swanky Tapas bar that (though sadly small in size) offered some amazing tasting cuisine.
Quite serendipitously, we got to spend time with a good friend of mine and a good friend of Amy’s, both of whom happen to be part of the same church community that we were visiting on Sunday morning – and got to have lunch at the Seinfeld restaurant!
On Sunday, we traveled down to Princeton together. We got to see and stay with 2 of Amy’s good college friends, Dave and Holly and their 2 little girls. Dave is working on a PhD at Princeton and they were good enough to take us by “Schuller Field,” recently named for a good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago after finishing the first year of his MDiv there. Here’s a few pictures of small plaques fixed to two benches at the field.
The next day we got to take a nice stroll through Central Park, followed by visits to the coolest looking Mac store around and FAO Schwarz (remember the piano scene from Big?) where Amy got to choose any stuffed animal she wanted for her Valentine’s Day present.
Monday afternoon we traveled back to Chicago where we got to spend the evening with our friends Noel and Ashley in Lawndale. Tuesday morning it was back to Memphis for me. Told you we packed alot in! Some more pictures here if you’re interested.
Hi There…
Hey, I'm JR - welcome to the blog.
I'm just an average guy trying to shape his identity around God's dream for the world and his place in it. This blog is a place for me (and you!) to reflect on and discuss all that might mean. Looking for a bit more on me? Check out the about me. Peace.
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