strangers united

i am perfectly located in a new context to spend my time thinking about neighbors and neighboring. and think about this, i have. it has challenged me, inspired me, and made me more aware.

but amidst this thinking of neighboring, neighbors, and neighborship, i can't help but also think of what i am reading in the old testament. over and over again God instructs the Israelites to remember the widows, slaves, orphans, outsiders, for "you yourself were once a stranger in a foreign land."

surprisingly enough, the call to love the stranger presents itself repeatedly while we read of loving our neighbors only a few times in the new testament. not to say that loving our neighbors is unimportant, but instead this realization has challenged me to heighten my awareness and recognize the stranger. 

in reflecting on passages such as deuteronomy 10:17-22, such a practice of paying attention has been one of calling myself stranger. the scripture tells the Israelites to love the strangers for they know what it is like to be strangers in a land. today, this passage highlights an area in my life that i am coming to terms with. partly I look forward to my mondays in Clarkston because of the many faces and stories behind the faces that i have met. it has been both insightful and comforting to spend time with people who are open about their newness and disorientation that comes with being resettled. yet their hope and curiosity in the midst of being in a foreign land and having uncertainty about the future encourages me. in deuteronomy Yahweh reminds the Israelite’s that their God is one who cares for the marginalized persons and they too (the Israelites) are expected to live in this framework as well because they know what its like to be people of such status. in Clarkston it would be tempting to think that i am person who is the non-stranger, the one who is able to welcome the stranger. in some ways i think i fulfill this role. but sometimes i see it differently. 

 in many ways my newness to Georgia, the south, being long distance from my family, and being in a new academic institution strips me of my old superficial identity and reorients it so that i feel like a stranger myself. despite the growing pains involved in feeling this way, my ability to identify, even in the slightest, as a stranger allows me to better connect with those who i am meeting through Extended Cultural Orientation. as a result, in letting myself rest in the tension of being new and unestablished, a stranger in a new place, i am in turn feeling more engaged and sitting more comfortably in this new space. 

           -h

seminary scribbles

         a new pal of mine keeps a blog and the title/theme of it all has inspired by blog title for today's post. seminary scribbles.
        sometimes seminary really does feel like a bunch of scribbling ----- in the form of note-taking, to-do/should-do lists, chapel bulletins, meeting minutes, comments in the margins… etc.
        scribbles are always abstract. sometimes messy. sometimes inspiring. mostly scribbles are random and frequently i am so aware of how random seminary is.

        just this past week i put on my galoshes, rain coat, and polka-dotted umbrella and strolled to tuesday chapel like normal (add: splashed in all the puddles) and as i neared the chapel i noticed three fifteen passenger vans with the heading STATE PRISONERS. i barely thought twice about how odd that situation should seem. i continued into the chapel and realized that the Voices of Hope, a select choir from the Lee Arrendale State Prison were here to perform. in the front of the chapel i saw twenty-five women standing in their fresh white choir robes with red decor. i scanned the room and also saw a dozen stationed guards, and a smiling warden. there was a jazz band set up to the left and choir alumni seated in the crowd.
      Voices of Hope proceeded to perform a medley of gospel and christmas tunes that engaged the audience and brought some real holiday spirit to the exhausted audience.
      as i sat listening i thought to myself: this is pretty bizarre. it is not everyday that i get to share in a space and be a guest/audience member of people who are generally deemed dangerous or even worthless.
      with all of this swirling in my head and in my heart i just couldn't help but think about how so much of seminary (for me at least) has been about showing up. this practice of showing up, whether it be to class, chapel, a club hike, a group discussion over tea, or to Clarkston, showing up and participating in the scribbles and scribbling of seminary, is proving to be fruitful. i am thankful for this place and the opportunities that i have as i continue to show up and through that, gain a better idea of who i am and who i am going to be.

     

wednesday walks

although lots of days grad school feels like an endless amount of work, there are days when the clouds disappear in our heads and we can clearly see the benefits of having this experience and continuing the season of being students.

Wednesday was a day well spent. We felt thankful for the flexibility that being on a school schedule offers us. How many people can spend a Wednesday morning walking around a park and admiring the breathtaking scenes of nature? 

“People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture. What is true is what happens, even if what happens is not always right. People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order. They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments by heart.” 

― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World

recipe favorites and recipe failures

part of parker and hannah's  fun each week revolves around figuring out what to cook and enjoy together.

we love wandering around the dekalb farmers market and soaking up with people watching and exploring the exotic produce.
each week we pick out something new to try.

when we get home we put all of the groceries away and then stand staring and asking….what should we make? 
in these moments of confusion we have put our brains together and come up with some interesting combinations: 

green power salad (parker's favorite)

saturday morning oaty pancakes 

homemade pizza

pumpkin soup

pumpkin spice choc chip cookies

brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes

happenings

 tuesdays are especially fun days at school when we visit the farmers market on campus. 

the apples are delicious! 

we also get to try fresh breads, jams, coffee brews, and kettlecorn.

we look forward to strolling through the market street and meeting the vendors and picking out new things to try each week.

of course we are still enjoying saturday morning pancakes! one of our favorite traditions we are starting. 

hannah got to enjoy a morning in downtown decatur eating brunch with her pals janelle & brandon.

we also enjoyed a evening of fall fun as we gathered with more of our friends to cook butternut squash soup, brussel sprouts and apple crisp. 

it is good to have this kind of homey company. 

parker led "church on the lawn" sunday. it was 55 degrees and cloudy but the band sounded great and it was nice to gather around outside for a change

of course we are still playing a little bit of catch up with our school work, (but are almost there!) so we study a lot. parker has been writing some high quality sermons and truly enjoying that process. hannah is enjoying her howard thurman meditation readings.

it is finally starting to look like fall! the temps are still warm, but we will take what we can get!

we love weekend runs together through the tall georgia trees

mostly we are just enjoying the married life, being settled in and being silly together.

                                                peace and love,

                                                                 h & p

ECO Gleanings

So far this semester Contextual Education has been one of my favorites spaces. This program places students in a variety of social service agencies to serve weekly. I am working with refugees being resettled in Clarkston, GA.  Clarkston is something like ‘the most densely diverse area per square mile’ due to the abundance of refugees being resettled in Clarkston each week. Here I get to know the refugee families in their first 21 days of life in Georgia. We sit together in “class” (an apartment located alongside their apartments in Clarkston) and as 25-30 of us squeeze into the living room we begin Extended Cultural Orientation (ECO), speaking 6-7 languages, doing a lot of smiling, and sipping tea and coca-cola together, we look at a lot of pictures together and talk about all of the systems and structures that America functions on. We talk about healthcare and the education system, ESL classes and employment opportunities. We learn how to take the Marta, open bank accounts, and get library cards. We talk about transitioning and the stress associated with that. We talk about mental health and family systems.

Every week I am learning. I learn new greetings in Burmese, Swahili or Arabic (last week I watched Aristocats with some of the kids and they taught me how to say cat and old man in Nepali). Sometimes I am even lucky enough to hear about one’s journey to the US and what life was like in their resettlement country as well as the conditions of their home country. I meet doctors, chefs, teachers, and entrepreneurs. I am reminded that each family’s story is  particular to them. I am reminded of the talented persons that have been displaced to US because of political, religious, ethnic or other social group persecution.

The setting and structure of ECO is creating space for me to do exactly what I feel Con ED should be doing. Weekly, I get to enter into a space that I  consider sacred. Here I meet new families and add to my narrative bank as some share their journeys with me. But I am not only enjoying learning the many cultural practices that differ from my own, but I am learning how to extend and receive hospitality well. I am practicing patience as we try to meet each other in the middle relying on body language and hand gestures to communicate. I am learning how to listen both literally and figuratively. I have felt surprisingly grateful for my American status. I have been surprised by the ways that the government has systems in place to financially and medically offer support to refugees in their initial resettlement period.

I feel thankful for the new faces that have patiently worked through the language barrier with me, as we come alongside each other, seeking common ground.

In the space that ECO is, I have the unique opportunity to slow down, sit, and be. In these moments I have the chance to use my imagination and ponder what genuine empathy can and should look like. It creates space for me to self-reflect and become more self-aware. I am learning how to be comfortable and confident in not having a lead role as well as having the confidence to ask a client to repeat their name (sometimes three times!). It is humbling to practice the ministry of presence. I am thankful for my time at ECO--it is allowing me to weave together my head, heart, and hands.

These are just a few things that I have been gleaning through my time at ECO. I really am getting a contextual education experience.  

Still living and learning,

Hannah 

new beginnings...new blog

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings."

—Through the Looking-Glass. 

Well, the time has come. It's time for H&P to try out this blogging thing. We hope for this to be a way for us to share what we are learning, pondering, and being inspired and encouraged by. We intend for this blog to create space for us to remember and record the dynamic things that happen as we are learning how to live in this new season of life. Mostly this blog is for us. But also we invite you, our dear friends and family to laugh, question, dream and get creative alongside us. 

Thanks for coming along on the journey.
Love, H&P

#postonecomplete