Week 3

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Today marks my third week in Boston.

This week has been filled with some pretty long hours preparing for the church's "Block Party Bonanza!" that was put on this past Saturday. The other intern and I worked all week on decorating, going to Costco buying $1,300 worth of food for the BP, and creating name tags and anything else imaginable. I also helped another guy hang a "Block Party" banner between the two columns on the front steps of the church. Pretty risky stunt, but I pulled it off.

This week on Tuesday we did our regular ministry called "Starlight" where we cooked and prepared the food for the Wednesday night ministry that feeds the homeless at Harvard square. I made pb&j sandwiches like I am oft to do. Maybe I should consider branching out. I think I might.

On Wednesday we went and handed out food to the homeless. I met a lady named Gayle. We can pray for her. She's in her 50-60's and her family has abandoned her and she has nowhere to go and feels completely alone, and in a temporal sense, she is. She didn't take any food but allowed us to pray for her. She said she is hoping Christ will help her. She said she was a Christian and prays that Jesus will help her reunite with her family. We can pray for that. She was very glad that we stopped by and talked and prayed for her. She was very thankful. I offered to give her a New Testament and she took it very gladly. Hopefully I will see her this week.

When I got to Harvard square I met up with Bill and we spent the remainder of the time talking. He's a very good guy to talk to. We ended up talking about the homosexual issue in regards to the church and salvation. He has a few friends who are gay and one that is transgendered. If you are unfamiliar with that term, don't google it. Bill told me he attended an Episcopalian church this last Sunday with a friend of his that was gay and after the service Bill's friend introduced him to his partner. Bill's friend's partner was the Pastor. Bill was very disappointed. And I'm glad he was. We ended up discussing the issue of transgendered people with regards to the church and salvation. It was a topic I had never faced head on before. I was a little taken aback when we started getting into it. It was an interesting conversation. The transgender (or TS "trans sexual" for short) issue is a big one up here. You don't hear of too many TS people in Dallas or come across them in your newspaper. (Like I did my first week here. Interesting story, for another time perhaps.) Bill was basically asking what would I do as a pastor if I had a TS person tell me they wanted to become a Christian and follow Christ. That's a pretty loaded question. And he was asking because he has a friend who is saying that. Nevertheless, I digress.

After all of us got back to the church and prayed, one of the members was going to go to a lounge with some of the graduates/singles from the Wednesday night group to celebrate her birthday. They invited both of us interns and we were like, "Uh...ok."

So we went. And it was a Bollywood lounge. If you're unfamiliar with Bollywood visit this link. A Bollywood lounge is a place where they sell drinks and play Bollywood movies or Bollywood music videos. Like this quality music video. It was the "cleanest" one I could find and I only watched a few seconds of it and I recommend you not waste the 3 minutes of your life either. You'll never get them back.

So that "style" of Hindi music video was playing the whole time right next to soccer. Everybody else was having a drink while the other intern and I sat there and smiled awkwardly. Not because "People are drinking! Dear God! Run away!" but because of the whole situation. And a little because where each of us come from, drinking alcohol is kinda looked down upon by our churches. Which is fine. But up here it's just natural. And a lot of people don't drink to get wasted like the stereotype goes. It's just normal and social and...normal. Anyways, that was an experience, at least for me anyway because the bass was thumping and Indian people were running around on the TV's with not a lot of clothing, etc.

On Thursday I was looking forward to sitting in on the Bible study entitled, "Gospel In Life" by Tim Keller. It's a great study but I had to be downstairs for childcare. Which was exactly that. One child. Oh well.

On Friday we worked really hard preparing for the Block Party. All of Friday was busy and I did a ton of things that I won't type.

Saturday was the Block Party. We grilled a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs, a couple inflatables for kids, face painting, arts and crafts, and a lot of other things. We had a lot of people but nobody knows an exact count of how many people were there. It was a good number of people. I met a few people and talked to a church planter who will be planting in the Medford area soon. (That link may or may not work. It's a northern suburb of Boston). All in all the Block Party was a fun deal and it was very hot outside.

After the block party a bunch of us from the church went to the lead coordinator's house for a Block Party "after party". That's where I met Jude and had that incredible conversation with him over a dang good mushroom burger. And when I say mushroom burger I mean one huge portobello mushroom overshadowing the burger patty. Pretty good.

On Sunday we continued the 3rd part of a 4 week series on the gospel. Basically 4 questions to ask ourselves:

1. Who are we accountable to?
2.What is our greatest problem?
3. What is our solution?
4. What are we to do in light of all of this?

and the answers:

1. God
2. Sin
3. Christ
4. Respond/believe

It's been a great sermon series so far. I recommend a listen on podcast.

Today I had the day off to myself and I chose to spend it at Boston Commons. It was such a great day! I walked around and saw the Massachusetts State House (the protesters and gay flag were not present). The Mass State House is where they legalized gay marriage in Boston.

It was a great day and I had lunch outside in front of the MSH. I walked a few blocks and saw the "Cheers" bar and a few famous Revolutionary War hero's houses. I then spent a while reading my biography on Hudson Taylor. It's a great biography of a great man of God who was a pioneer missionary in China and a great man of faith. He was one of the first missionaries to employ the idea of contextualization whereby a missionary infiltrates a culture to reach that culture. (without being a part of the culture's sin). Anyways, I had a great time being in the culture of Boston and praying intermittently throughout my time at the Commons. My heart was broken again for the gay community, specifically in Boston, and my heart was renewed for this great city.

I believe it is God's plan for that my life's goal be to bring the City of God to the city of Boston. Let's pray that current church planters and pastors will continue to be used for this very purpose. And they are. But we need so many more.


Well, I must retire for the night. I've got Adrian Brody, er I mean Władysław Szpilman, waiting in my DVD player.

I love you all and I greatly appreciate your prayers.

God's mission continues tomorrow!