Moving to Philly!

If you know me well, then you know that I always have a plan.  I always have a vision for what's next.  I started mapping out my college course schedule after my freshman year of high school, and by my senior year, I had a spreadsheet that plotted out when I was going to take each course over the next four years of college.  Part of my plan from the beginning has been to study abroad for my whole senior year.  My previous international experiences have shaped me significantly, and I wanted to take the opportunity in college to spend significant time immersed in different cultures.  I had planned to be flying to Uganda yesterday for my fall semester and then spending the spring in Jordan.  But sometimes things do not go according to plan.  As I am sure the current pandemic has thrown a wrench into your plans, it has certainly thrown a wrench in mine.  Both of my study abroad programs were cancelled.  With the Adventure Ed program being phased out at Messiah, I did not feel that returning to Messiah for a socially distant education devoid of many of the relationships and opportunities that have made my experience there valuable for the past three years would be best.  So in mid-June, I considered taking a gap year.  Two months later, I moved to the neighborhood of Kensington, where I will be living for the next year.

This year, I will be participating in Mission Year, which is a program of an organization called The Simple Way.  The vision of Mission Year is to embody the love and justice of Jesus in the city of Philadelphia (and previously in other cities across the country).  For the next year, I will be living in the under-resourced neighborhood of Kensington with the other five members of my team as we learn and practice what it means to love God, love others, and love ourselves.  I will also be serving four days a week at KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy, a public charter school that provides college-preparatory education to high school students in Philadelphia who might not otherwise have access to high-quality teaching and support.  I am excited to see how God uses this year to shape me and to also allow me to be a loving presence in my neighborhood here.

This week has been a great start to the program.  Since all of us traveled from different areas to get here, we are self-quarantining for two weeks, which means we haven't left the house since Monday, when we moved in.  We spent a lot of this week turning our small row house into a home.  The Mission Year teams from last year lived in a different house, so all of the furniture and other belongings were piled in the kitchen and living room when we arrived.  We arranged the furniture, organized everything, and de-cluttered.  I felt much more settled here once we were able to do this.  

Another big focus of this week has been starting to form community with one another.  We have spent a lot of time starting to listen to each other's stories and get to know one another.  It has felt refreshing to live with others after months of being somewhat isolated.  I have enjoyed playing games together, sharing meals, and diving into conversation.  

This week also served as an orientation to the Mission Year program.  Ra, the program director, came to our house each day to lead sessions which consisted of everything from discussing Mission Year's values to exploring Scripture together to explaining what our daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms will look like this year.  All of this generated a lot of excitement for me about everything that is ahead.  Caz, the director of The Simple Way, also led us in a "Centering Time" each morning, where we engaged in a spiritual practice to center ourselves and be attentive to what we were feeling.  These practices were definitely a highlight of the week for me.

Another highlight of this week was pulling out my Insanity DVD workouts to keep myself sane (pun intended).  Since I am not able to go outside and run while we quarantine, I came prepared with all of the Insanity workouts to play on my computer.  I even convinced two of my team members to join me for one of the workouts, and one joined me a second time!  It is good to find ways to be creative in cultivating a sustainable way of life, even if that means three people doing a DVD workout in a tiny bedroom together.  Creativity has been a theme this week.

I feel like there is so much more to share, but that will likely unfold as we start getting into the rhythms of actually engaging in all of things we talked about this week.  Feel free to comment below with questions or thoughts for me to respond to.

This next week, we will continue our self-quarantine.  Our focuses for the week will be sharing our stories with one another, developing a deeper understanding of the neighborhood around us, and finding ways to have fun with one another while confined to our home.  Please pray for hopefulness and energy as we remain inside, and that we can create a lot of meaning together as we dive into sharing our stories and learning more about Kensington.  

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In front of my home in Kensington. Shoutout to Abby who made me this tie-dye shirt. :)