Community

June 1, 2008

It is both fortunate and unfortunate; the occurrences of the past week.

I really feel that within the past week that Carrie and I really have started to connect with and develop some friends in the area that are totally outside of our team. It has been a bit depressing with all of the people that we usually hang out with gone (or at least we didn’t realize that they were still around - sorry Craig). But there were a few things that happened that have helped to maybe remedy that…

First off, honestly, is Twitter. In the past week or so I’ve connected on there with a good number of people that we attend church with or are in a small group with. I figured out the best explanation of its value also… when my wife’s family gets together for dinner or just to spend time they talk mostly about the every-day minutiae of their lives and that is wonderful because they are able to see each other every day because they all live within 15 minutes of each other and talk all the time. It’s very different in a city and especially when you work a job in which you don’t have normal and diverse coworkers (yeah, we interact with college students as well, but I’m really looking at peers) which really prevents you from developing a lot of friendships outside of a small team that you work with. Also, it’s just healthy to have friends who do something different than ministry when you’re in ministry - that’s just reality, but it can be hard to find those friends. Honestly, Twitter has helped. (If you’re on Twitter, find me. I’m at twitter.com/jaysonwhelpley.)

The other things that happened were just plain having fun with people from our small group. A couple had a small cookout and we went and had fun and met people and got to know those friends better. Then tonight small group was really small (including 4 people who were at the cookout) and we just hung out. In addition to all of that, we’re having the cookout couple over for dinner on Tuesday. It’s sad and funny that it’s taken us almost a year to get to this point, but I tell you the job makes it a little harder too… I promise.

The sad thing is that as of Thursday we’re pretty much out of town until about 3 days around the end of July and then gone again for a week or so. So we’re kinda cutting this off right as it’s starting.

On the whole I am socially encouraged. I really am glad to find some people that feel like real friends. I’m hoping the trend continues! The sermon today on community was very well timed.

Posted in Friends