hair

This is totally unrelated to ministry, but has anyone else noticed how awful NYC water is for your hair? Mine has been particularly frizzy this year. A friend mentioned that she always has great hair when she's traveling in the Netherlands, and, lo, we confirmed that hers was not the only hair that was luscious & glossy in Amsterdam. The great hair returned in Seattle while we were there for a wedding on labor day weekend, and then again in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.

I will miss living in Brooklyn when we move this fall, but on the upside I'm looking forward to some great hair days.

Commencement

An End and A Beginning

"So whuddya gonna do now?" As the year rushed to a close and graduation came and went, this question rang in in all of our ears. We are extremely proud to have walked through college with an entire class of graduating seniors. They are going on to many different things. Their interests and talents are many, as are their options.


Andrew, one of the graduating seniors, picked up on a more important question that very few will ask. It is a more elusive and complex question but one that we feel, because of the God we serve, feel compelled to ask. During our year end banquet, he reflected on the year saying that in the midst of numerous activities he found himself being asked to consider much more than just the mechanics of event planning: "What is our character going to be like? Who are we going to be?" For it’s in this question that hearts are unlocked and people start to live lives of dangerous beauty. Though character change is difficult to measure, we cannot help but be delighted to hear students coming away from this year with questions of true repentance, faith, and gospel transformation on their minds.


Some of the obvious highlights of the year have been the big events like conferences, retreats, and spring break trips but, so often, the true marks of transformation are hidden in subtle changes and mundane acts.


This year, several students and recent grads decided to share an apartment, but their varying standards of cleanliness became a source of much tension throughout the fall. Despite many confrontations, they appeared to be locked in a stalemate. Literally. Then, the most offended woke up on his birthday morning to discover that his greatest offender had cleaned his bathroom, including his toilet. This act remains his most cherished birthday gift from this year. As a practical matter, maybe it's not a big deal, but we cannot take it for granted when the Spirit graces us with the humility and willingness to reconcile, to actually change our attitudes and posture towards others. This is the same necessary kind of miracle that brings us to the Father.


In a culture of individualism & self-interest, New York is a particularly ripe petri dish for bad dating habits and Christians are by no means immune. One self-proclaimed womanizer found himself listening in on the opposite end of a particularly messy breakup. As he sat there, he began to realize as a participant in this community, he might have some responsibility to speak on behalf of this young woman who was particularly hurt. The thought of confronting someone else, a graduate student, no less, terrified the sophomore, but as he confirmed that he was, at that point, the only person privy to the information, he moved forward. A few days later, we received a phone call. The confronter said, "That was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life." A few hours later, the confronted also called, saying,"____ called me out. It was so awesome. I can't believe he did it, but I really needed it."


These acts, though seemingly small, were made with a sense of courage and self-forgetfulness that bear the marks and character of the gospel. We challenged our student friends with the question "What does it mean to love well?" and they responded.


This was a precious year for us in many respects, and we feared that we would not know how to let go. Yet as we see these young men & women coming into their own knowledge of their uniqueness in Christ, we see it as an awesome privilege to send them on to new things. 3/4 of the students, will come back to campus a little older, and hopefully a little wiser, and the class of 2007, the class with whom we share our freshman year at NYU, we send them out into the world.


Have we mentioned God's answer to prayer? At the beginning of the school year, Mike prayed that four people from our ministry would move onto professional ministry after this year. (Why four? We don't have a logical reason, but apparently the Spirit was on the move. We certainly don't believe that these students' potential gospel impact is limited to their choice to pursue professional Christian work, and pray that they always pursue the redemption of every part of culture they enter.) Two recent graduates and one senior applied to EdgeCorps, Navigators' short-term ministry exploration program long before their deadline, but #4 remained elusive. Throughout the year, a number of seniors inquired about EdgeCorps, one even began the application process, but each one moved on to other things. During finals, our least likely suspect found herself yearning for Japan, where she had studied during high school, and spent a college summer with the Navigators. At this point, she is beginning her fundraising for a summer 2008 start date with the Navigators in Japan.


Empty Nesting
We are also graduating with the class of 2007. Who have we become in this process? One year ago, we were just beginning to consider a return to New York City. We knew we wanted to work in ministry & were confident in some of our gifting, but in one short year we have also come to better know our short comings and limitations. We have spent a fair amount of time arguing about the dishes and facility management in general, though we are grateful that we have not lost our mutual respect and love for one another. We can even say that our love for one another and for God is growing deeper through the hard conversations and challenges. We continue to see ourselves in a type of ministry that focuses on gospel transformation of the heart as we continue to wrestle with the subtle deceptions of our own flesh, seek forgiveness from one another and, together, plead the blood of Christ.


Thus, we look forward to the future to what God will commence in our lives and in the lives of our friends. This fall, Mike will pursue an M.Div at Princeton Theological Seminary full time while Sonja will continue working at Redeemer Presbyterian Church for another year. Though Redeemer teeters on the cusp of megachurch-ness, we are already the beneficiaries of intimate care and investment. There are many opportunities for us to serve immediately, and some others for us to grow into. As members of this community, we will need to submit to the wisdom and care of these brothers & sisters, especially as we enter this new season of learning and discernment. What that means practically is that we will move to Princeton, NJ (yes, for real) in late August and Sonja will commute to the city. Mike’s full-time employment with the Navigators will officially end August 31st . (And we'll actually make it in the black, if we can raise an additional $5,500 over the next few months). Thanks so much for partnering with us in ministry to students in New York City. We will be in touch again before the end of the summer. If you are interested in supporting our last leg of this journey you can do it online : www.navigators.org