Just the Two of Us

(building castles in the Bronx)

It has been quite a week up here, full of lots of fun and experiences of the Kingdom of God but also lots of exhaustion. On Thursday our wonderful house mate Kate (the great) told us she would be moving back to Texas. She had not found a job here in NY yet and decided it made the most sense to go back where she could get one no problem. We fully support her and love her a whole lot but its been a pretty emotionally exhausting journey for Sara and I (Jillian) these last 8 months or so as we've had lots of people seemingly on board and ready to bring the Kingdom to the South Bronx with us and for reasons that are really hard for us to understand all of them have decided not to be with us. Most of them are our good friends and family who we love and don't begrudge them their decisions at all but it is still pretty tough for Sara and I. We are trusting God that he is going to do amazing things whether we've got a house of ten people or two but we'd love to have some more people to walk the walk with. That said, we've sort of temporarily decided that if we are going to have more roommates its gonna be through God's work and not ours, we really don't want to be let down again and it'll be right when God makes it so. Pray with us though that He would call workers to the South Bronx, specifically to be with us but also all over the neighborhood. Pray also for Sara and I that we would not be lonely, my personality doesn't allow for much time with just me before I go crazy so I'm gonna need God's help to feel satisfied by myself sometimes.

In other news we've had a lot of good times with the neighborhood this week! The kids from next door have been over almost every night this week which is such a blessing to me as every time they are here they make me smile. We had a lot of fun on Thursday night and they all made a puzzle of the United States with Sara and our friends Ryan and Jared while I cooked us dinner. Then we got to sing with them to "With You" by Chris Brown (which Sara and I sing to every time we ride the subway together, video footage to come soon!) We've also spent a lot of time just hangin out on the step and getting to know the neighbors a bit more. Another fun thing has been having Sara's Aunt, Uncle and cousins in from Texas for the weekend, they have been really helpful in preventing our loneliness and it's also great to see people so excited about the city. It's an important reminder of the amazing place we are blessed to live and the opportunity we've been given to make it better for everyone.

That's all for now, I'll post pictures (the kids have taken a million of them) as soon as I find a bodega that sells AA batteries! Stay Blessed!