Community Garden Party | Easter 2011

On Easter this year, we rejuvenated a lot of dreams. Our community has been around for two years now and we have already seen a few seasons come and pass. We had a lot of surprises when we started, most notably, how difficult it would be (a) to truly share life together in labor and love and (b) to truly get to know our neighbors and unite them. One other minor one...how hard it was to really get a good garden going! Thankfully, we have started to really hit our stride with working together.



The planting this year represented huge leaps of new adventure. We met new neighbors and connected with old friends around our table. As our neighborhood teeters on gentrification and is starkly divided racially and socio-economically, we are thankful to have engaged both sides, to come together to plant a garden, laugh, learn from each other, and later share a meal.

Our friends the Warners, share in a desire to simply live in West Salem with the agenda of an open door and a helpful hand. Ben and Katie have taught us a lot about hospitality.

We had a great time of prayer over the garden and for the meal, with kids running around, food passed, and most importantly, God glorified as the great peacemaker between different people. A great message was preached to the neighborhood, that it does not take contrived church programs or a selective neighborhood agenda, but simple food and friendship, can enrich a community.

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much thanks to friends like Daniel Umlauf, the Milner family, Ashley Porter, and Fay and Camille.

Community Garden Party

We are excited that spring is upon us, the many car-less in our neighborhood are known to emerge and wander the streets, making it a ripe time to make new friends. Please read the below announcement and let us know if you'd like to join! Also, take liberty to share this, especially to people in West Salem.

The Franklin Street House will be planting their gardens on Sunday April 24th. Any and all wanting to play in the yard or pitch in are welcome to join between 1pm until worship at 5pm. This will be a great opportunity to make a social stir in the neighborhood and make friends. In addition, all are invited to a meal after Church, at 7:30pm, to celebrate the garden. Austin Pfeiffer will lead a discussion on using Community Gardens for missional outreach. They will provide a vegetarian soup, bread, vegetarian salads, and desserts are welcome. Simply RSVP with austin.pfeiffer@gmail.com by April 22nd.

Gentrification and Urban Mission

There is a tension many of us face in the U.S. when it comes to Urban Mission. If you are white (though not necessarily), middle-class, and educated, you bring a certain culture with you, wherever you go. That is essentially gentrification. It is a bit of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation, and it is happening in our neighborhood right now. I have recently been getting lots of emails from our Neighborhood Association, generally well-intentioned I might add. They usually entail something like, "have you noticed the people offering to shovel snow...seems like a convenient way to case a house during the holidays" or "watch out for people who drive slowly, they may be interested in stealing metal from your house."

I hear that! The last thing a Neighborhood Association wants is people driving slowly and offering to help each other in a snow storm. So someone posed to me, "what do YOU do?" Am I part of the gentrification? Gentrification really is not a racial issue, but there is a racial tie often associated with the socio-economic group that moves in and the group displaced. It seems if you are part of the hegemony, you are either gentrifying by moving into low-income areas, or contributing to economic, usually racial, segregation through homogeneous congregation.

There really is no benevolent choice in either, but there are bad choices. I think the worst choice is to move into a neighborhood with the intention to "transform" it, but through investing in transforming your own property. Gentrification happens when the following unfolds without engaging the core of the neighborhood:

Someone who can afford to live in other neighborhoods chooses a low-income neighborhood, buys a cheap house, uses the savings to fix it up, buys a $100 rain barrel from Whole Foods, and develops an isolated utopia with a great front yard garden...maybe even forming a Neighborhood Association. This raises property values and taxes and pushes out the people who made THEIR life in that neighborhood. The only upside is it probably chokes off the slum-Lords. (I am looking at you Mark, with the white pick-up, who owns the boarding houses on Franklin Street and evicted a jobless man who was going through chemo for Throat Cancer).

Our Neighborhood Association breeds mistrust of the people living on the fringes and it communicates primarily through meetings setup through online social networking, excluding the long time residents who (based on KNOWING most of my neighbors), do not have computers. There is only one solution...the choice of the Christian (though not exclusively).

You can segregate or you can gentrify...or you can be a middle-class person, move into a low-income neighborhood to save money, and instead of re-investing that money into a Prius and hard-wood floors, you can use it to empower your NEIGHBORS to invest in their homes, their gardens, and to simply have them over for a meal. This is beautification, enrichment, in the name of God, which does not displace, but empowers.

I know Christians doing this in our neighborhood. They care for single moms, they invest money in re-decorating OTHER people's houses, they share meals...and I might add I never get emails from them about "suspicious" activity, because they know who those people are. Those people actually know the man others always see walking around with long hair, dark hats, and just looking at people's houses...and those Christians know he is not a creepy predator...he is Keith, a 53 year old long time resident with special needs, who lives on his own.

The Cove

I am a little late to the game on The Cove. I have been wanting to watch it for the past year, kept hearing interviews with Ric O'Barry, and seeing clips. I cannot watch these types of movies with my wife, who converted me to vegetarianism, because she cannot handle imagining cruelty to animals, let alone witness documentation of it.

Aside from the ethic of eating meat, the movie hit me on a much larger scale. At the very end, I found myself struggling to catch my breath. It was not fighting back tears the way a movie generally strikes our heart strings, but an overwhelming paradox of repentance and gratitude. My immediate reaction was an understanding that we are so capable of sin, so deeply deranged and we have a collective part in the human condition. I am appalled by people who could be so disturbed as to torture animals, but on a greater level, even though I do not eat meat, let alone dolphin meat, I am blind too some sin in my life, just like these Japanese men.

At the same time, I cannot deny a creator made dolphins. When I lived in San Diego, I remember surfing (or at least paddling) next to them. It is as spiritual as anyone has described, not just a romanticized delusion of naturalists. Additionally, I cannot believe we receive grace. Ric O'Barry is the greatest witness of repentance I have ever seen. There is no hint of self-depreciation or denial in him, simple recompense.

When the 9/11 attacks occurred I had been a Christian for almost 3 months. I was in Colorado, far removed. Even in that distance, a strange sense of realignment happened to many people, just by watching TV and reexamining humanity. I cried a lot, sort of inexplicably. I think my emotions for the complexity of life were unsettled from delusion because of the attacks and the feeling was liberating, but also degrading. The end of The Cove is the only time since then when I have felt the same emotions. I highly recommend you see it.

Erin's update from Liberia pt. 2

tuesday
So Bakary has malaria : ( the viral type. yesterday he started
feeling poorly and was sick all night. he got treatment and we are
still making this crazy trip which I’m nervous for him for. Please
pray that he improves and that his symptoms decline.

Met with the National AID/STI Control Program today, was a really
interesting meet. There is so much stigma here with HIV and so even
the small percentages that get tested, those that are positive don’t
seek treatment.


saturday
Just got back from my adventures in the jungle. Wow..so, so much I'm
feeling and processing and have been experiencing and its been hard to
even put into complete thoughts. It was a good though intense experience. We got stuck in the mud in the jungle for two days and slept in the car, so we are happy to be back to the first electricity and stable ground we've seen for
five days. i keep trying to think of how to put words to a lot of what
i've been feeling here but it's such a mix and so different than other
developing country settings because of the diverse geography,
political, and cultural context that a lot of times i can't decipher
if i'm feeling joy at some of the beautiful parts of humanity or deep
distress at its brokenness.

the grant is adding pressure every day and we are still very
behind..would love your prayers that our work is efficient and that
our few hours of sleep the next few days will be multiplied so we are
rested to work. bakary is feeling better from malaria symptoms for the
first time today so that is a huge praise.

Erin's updates from Liberia

updates from Erin in Liberia...Bakary is her coworker, who is African.

thursday
we are still in the capital, making this set of table and chairs at this outdoor restaurant our hub. we're on United Natins Drive where at the government entities and NGO headquarters are. an antelope like thing just walked past me on the patio and bakary didn't even blink. i guess they are normal here. out of the thousands of people i've seen in the capital, i've seen two white people. we head to one of the closer-by rural regions tomorrow..leaving at 6am, working til midnight. seems that will be our schedule every day while here. its' been pretty intense and we've been having some challenges already, but we are remaining optimistic.

saturday
soo much rain today. it is definitely the rainy season. and when there are no roads or rocks it just means looots of mud : ) but when i woke up this morning before the rain started i looked out my window which overlooks a big open area with burned down things and some construction scraps. i didn't see anyone anywhere, until i spotted this little 2 year old in a broken wheelbarrow all by himself playing. was both really sweet and a little sad that he was playing in the rubble.

things are good here although so much more overwhelming than i could have anticipated..mainly just working around the clock going to meetings, traveling to remote communities to hold focus groups, and working late at a place in the capital with internet writing our proposal. we start at 6am

today and tomorrow we are pretty much writing none stop with a few meetings and then monday and tuesday we have a busy next days of more meetings with USAID and government, NGO, and health officials. loving being in Africa..such a great feeling..just a whirlwind and lots of pressure with this grant. but still have another 10 days or so, so more time to get to see the country. tues or wednesday we head to the remote southeast region..if we can make it! no roads and a lot of the paths are feet of mud from the rainy season, ..we have to take our pickup truck to the mechanic to weather-proof it for the drive, buy a shovel in case we get stuck, and stock up on food and water. should be an intense journey.

i'm still having so much trouble understanding everyone. we use a translator for most of our communication which is hilarious since it is from english to english. Delphine, a girl who is with us all day to help us with local communication, said what I thought was "day-key" and i had to say "sorry, what was that?" 3x before she enunciated enough that i realized she was just saying "later" as she left. i wish you could hear it. it's mostly a thick dialect and different intonation, but also some different phrases. today during the focus group on pregnancy and labor/delivery i learned that "make the belly" means pregnancy, "receiving plenty" means heavy menstration, and "borning" means having children : )

met some super cute kids running around in the village yesterday..wearing rags for clothes.they are both really curious by me but also a bit intimidated..i think i might be the only white person in the country..i wish i could disguise my skin for a month..i feel like one of those ugly flourecent lights walking around. i don't think i'll come away with more than a few photos..will just have to describe things to you. mostly because we are in meetings and running from place to place without time to take out a camera..but also i definitely didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of people in the community. i stand out enough already and i don't want that to compromise our relationship with the people..but will try to sneak a few over the weeks. also, i was standing in one of the communities yesterday and felt a little something on my feet and looked down and it was tiny chicks pecking at my shoes. : )

sunday
today we just had one meeting this afternoon, but otherwise are non-stop writing away on the proposal. have had a couple more hurdles, which is adding pressure to the deadline, but i'm feeling better today than i did on friday when i was most overwhelmed.

making friends with lots of lizards..they are green with red heads. and an african grey parrot. and..my antelope friend just came up and said hi..did you know their noses constantly twitch like a bunny's?

Bakary is in superintense work mode..but he provides his own comic relief to me because several times in the last two days he's said to people, "In your top head, what do you think..." instead of "Off the top of your head". makes me giggle inside each time. : )

so far i have not gotten sick at all. i have also not eaten Liberian food yet. ha. we are eating between two places, indian and pretty-close-to-american, that bakary knows to be safe. but i think we'll experience some traditional food when we travel since there will be no restaurants or stores. we will pack a bit of food too. i still have loads of dried fruit, nuts, and granola bars.

last night we went to a party/meeting for one of the women we've been working with who is leaving the country to work in the NYC office of the NGO. it's funny because she is liberian but has a bit of a new york accent because she's spent lots of time there including some growing up years. the event was soo nice because it was the one hour of the day we were not furiously writing the proposal and we had some super interesting conversations with some kenyan officials and development leaders.

we did not go to church, with way too much to do, but it is amazing to see people so dressed up. people in gorgeous garb, some very colorful, some all white..all perfectly clean and pressed, walking through mud and barrbed wire. not sure if we'd be able to go to a church next sunday but that would be great.

The Suburbs

The Suburbs have been on my mind a lot. I listened to Garrison Keillor read a story about his first kiss, hanging out with a young girl on fresh cut grass. Keillor noted that men spend endless time manicuring grass that boys enjoy. The Arcade Fire album The Suburbs, seems constantly victim of projection by former suburbanite indie lemmings. They crave an indictment of suburban life so they can sign the warrant and declare themselves severed from the sanitary environment of their youth that threatens their urban credibility (sorry kids, there is some subtle romanticism in the album).

I had a friend recently ask me if intentional living and mission could be done in the Suburbs? Urban gentrification is the new white flight. Yuppies are moving into neighborhoods (we might be part of the problem) of lower income, saving some money, all the while displacing the culture which preceded. In our city its happening on the southwest side.

And so goes the church. We want to "reach the city." Therefore, we often hate the suburbs, which is really a defense mechanism. Might we reveal that we grew up without a coming of age story, but a story of a picture book? So the young idealists, like myself, would say, "NO, you can't do mission in the Suburbs!!!"

The truth is far more complicated. Here is a great quote from Richard Lovelace's Dynamics of Spiritual Life

the American straight culture, with its characteristic pattern of sin--pride, ambition, avarice, envy, self-righteousness, conformity, respectability, was confronted by the Dionysian youth culture, with another distribution of sin...the differing centers of gravity in the sin of two cultures permitted a complimentary distribution of virtues so that the two could be prophetic toward one another. When straight Americans began to upbraid the hippies for their disorder and licentiousness, they found themselves confronted by prophets from Gomorrah who lashed out at their materialism and their subservience to the child-devouring Molocha of the capitalist-success system.

When you move into the city to transform it through missional living, you choose to integrate yourself with the market, the people, the lifestyle. As a Christian, a resident alien, you choose to reject the sinful zeitgeist of the world you reside in but are not a citizen of. We live in a neighborhood whose sin is a sense of hostility and privacy. Guard dogs, no trespassing signs, and a general grimace from porch sitters. We choose to subvert and transform this culture, not accept it and that is not easy. Privacy is one of the few luxuries people can afford here and we choose not to indulge in it.

So suburban mission, can it be done? Yes, but the zeitgeist must be rejected. The counter culture asks the question, "what is the normalcy dominating here and what is suspect about it?" The counter culture for a Christian is Romans 12, to not conform to the ways of this world. Living in the 'burbs is not a bad thing. The problem is, a lot of Christians make mission fields out of places with wonderful tertiary benefits and convince themselves they are reaching a corner of the turf of the Great Commission, but they are really justifying a lifestyle of indulgence. We are citizens of another world, so if we blend well, we might want to inspect our passports. Fitting into anywhere as a Christian is a bit suspicious, suburbs included. Just like the city and the country, we are there to serve our master and resist the sin...which in some places means avoiding anger and privacy...for others, its the manicured lawn and materialistic carousel.

The Spiritual Theology of Intentional Community

Right now I am reading Spiritual Theology by Simon Chan. Its a fantastic read so far, especially to read a post-modern author from the Eastern World, Chan is a professor at Trinity Theological College, Singapore. In his book he describes spiritual theology standing, "between systematic theology and Christian praxis." I would argue Intentional Community is the pragmatic manifestation of Chan's definition of spiritual theology.

I spent this week in Nashville at the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). Being a part of the PCA I lose MAJOR points with my predominantly anabaptist peers throughout neo-monasticism. I would argue though, that the PCA, whose identity is rooted in an anti-hierarchical, pro-grassroots, connectional philosophy, is the prime soil to plant neo-monasticism in the reformed world. The PCA is in fact not a speck interested in theological experimentation, but they are perpetually excited about experimenting with the organization of Christian community for the sake of mission and discipleship. I am eager to introduce my friends to the ideas of intentional communities and why they could fit into the larger Church. That got me thinking, at its core, what are we defined by as neo-monastics and what of that could translate to the Church.

The best resource is always the 12 Marks of Neo-Monasticism from the Rutba House. However, to complement this, here are some practical thoughts I'd shared. One of the myths of the subconscious and maybe even at the forefront of some people's minds is that intentional community is essentially for the sake of those living within the community. People dream or maybe subliminally long to recreate some sort of collegiate experience of eternal camaraderie. The type of community I am interested in and I think is the only sustainable form is to create a community interested in mission. To transform a neighborhood externally or to invite people into your home to transform their lives. Sharing possessions, minimizing environmental impact, and of course company, are all good things, but the idea behind them is for the service of a greater mission. Living simply in economics, with less environmental impact and more connected communally all liberate us to change peoples' hearts and the material world.

On the flip side of this misconception is maybe a naivety to solitary component to intentional community. Just because you cohabitate, share possessions, does not mean introverts need not apply. Solitude is a very monastic ideal. Some people only associate solitude with monasticism, when in fact it was a fuel for mission. Henri Nouwen's description of solitude is contrasted by loneliness saying that solitude is when we spend time alone to contemplate and create space to be hospitable to the world, while loneliness is spending time alone thirsting for company.


When solitude and mission come together, we see spiritual theology and we can create a form of intentional community more sustainable than an attempt at hyper-socialization or the strange isolation we create in our culture.

O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

by austin pfeiffer

The past week was an incredible apex for our community. We saw the realization of many dreams. On Monday our chickens arrived and immediately one was laying. We continued the week with two eggs a day, using them in our homes and sharing a few with friends. On Saturday, Paul and Erin and I went to the farmer's market at the Joel and signed up for our CSA with Mill River Farm AND we ordered two chicks from them to add to our coop.

On Friday we had our sixth Critical Mass W-S, where we had 15 riders hitting our downtown. It was exciting to ride past all the restaurants, people's curiosity tickled and the energy of liberated bikers, safely riding together through these streets so foreign to human-powered vehicles. It was a beautiful night, ending with sweet companionship at Krankie's where we drank New Belgium beers and signed people up for Team Wonderbike.

On Saturday night we brewed another beer, what we're calling the Roulette American Ale, because it was brewed by two Americans, with American hops, malt, and yeast...plus Paul and I don't know what we're doing, so its a gamble whether it will taste good or kill you. The weekend was capped off with a huge community dinner on Easter Sunday night. We had friends from all over the city bringing food, good wine and beer, mingling on our front porch, checking out the chickens, getting to know each other, bringing community together.

It was a full life, a seizing of breath, air, passion, sweetness. Carpe Diem is the romantic mantra of fullness, spontaneity, and excitement. In Christianity we have something else, its 1 Corinthians 15:55..."WHERE O DEATH IS THY STING?" Taunting death we live unfettered by the chains of mediocrity, enjoying God's earth, his animals, and his people with depth and breadth. Ending a week so rich does not charm the words "Carpe Diem" off my lips, but bubbles up into a victory yelp of a pastor here in Winston, Hunter Dockery, who said last night with mockery, barb, and provocation, "O DEATH, O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING?"

urban farming 2

Here are the updated photos of our finished chicken coop.

The side opens to retrieve eggs, which we plan to share with our less fortunate neighbors, as well as sell to raise money for adoption.

The design is an A-frame to widen for the chickens to have surface area to walk around while remaining a low profile. It also has no floor, so the chickens will be fertilizing areas of our yard.


Our compost is growing, needs turning soon!