September!

Hello friends and family!

I am excited to say that we have students moved in to our house and we have officially begun our semester. The first few weeks of this semester have been busy but exciting as we got started. The students moved in the last weekend in August and the next day we left for a week long camping and hiking trip in the mountains of Colorado. This was an important trip for us as we attempted to remove ourselves from our normal day-to-day life in order to begin to form relationships have discussion about living together in community this semester. We have a great group of five students that are committed to this program but more importantly committed to each other for this semester. Our trip to Colorado was a great opportunity to talk through some of and the issues that come as a part of living with others; not just in the physical sense but in a sense of honesty and vulnerability to one another.

Following this trip we went to Chicago for the annual convention of the Christian Community Development Association. It was a great time listening to stories of people who have been doing community development out of a Christian framework for decades. It was exciting to see the way that the students were challenged and stretched as we listened and learned together. These first two weeks were a great opportunity for us to build relationships one another and think theologically about what it looks like for us to live as a community and also what it looks like for that community to live in our neighborhood and amongst our neighbors. I really enjoyed these times of traveling and learning together but now we are back in our home in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City to put the thoughts and dreams that we have discussed into action. Having now been home couple weeks it has been amazing to watch the students grow together as we read and discuss books like Dietrich
Bonheoffer’s Life Together and spend times in spiritual formation reading scripture together and asking how that will take shape in our community and in our neighborhood. I would ask that you would continue to pray for us and specifically as we plant ourselves in this neighborhood and begin to build deeper relationships with our neighbors. Pray for the interaction between all of us living in the house that we would be able to love and forgive one another as we have seven people living together in one house.

Thanks you again for all of your supportand prayers, I am blessed to
have all of you as partners in this ministry.

Nate Howard