Do you love your city? This is the phrase that keeps popping up here in Seattle this week, I have come to see that the people of Network Tacoma and those of faith in Seattle are people of intention. It’s funny that I have been surrounded by people who are living lives of intention by loving there city this week, it’s the very phrase that has become my theme from now until I graduate. Don’t we want to be people of intention, the kind of people who love our city in the name of Love. I have seen this phrase lived out this week in a very real way, so let me tell you about two individuals I have come to know this past week.
Greg is the VP of Network and the man who picked us up from the air port on Saturday night, he’s a man with an interesting story that eventually led him to working for Network. He lives for others in the city of Tacoma and he invites others to live with him, he’s a man who has a family and intentionally moved into traditionally one of the roughest neighborhoods in all of Tacoma. He moved into this neighborhood all in the name of intentionality, this absolutely amazed me that someone could love a city so much that he would want to move into the ghetto part to intentionally love that neighborhood and be a missionary in it’s context. He takes it a step further though in the context of Community, he lives in a house with his wife and kids and all together 11 people live in this house to love the community and be community to each other in the name of Christ. I had the opportunity to stop by his house on Monday night and actually seeing this lived out first hand was awesome and humbling, I got to meet one of those he lives with his name is Ben and he to is living a life of intentionality in the city of Tacoma. I left his house that night thinking about what it would look like for me to start living a life of intentionality in my own life and to one day love a city just as much, this question lingers as I write this but it lingers with a vision and a willingness to go into a direction that isn’t cleared yet. I’ll write about this maybe one day but not today.
The second man I want to introduce you to is Robert, he’s the creator and vision behind Network and a very chill guy who loves Jesus and the city of Tacoma. It’s a difficult time for Robert these days just 8 months ago he lost his wife to cancer and you can see he’s still grieving this, he’s a man who goes wherever the wind takes him actually he reminds me of an old school hippie. He started out doing what he does in Tacoma in Seattle, he was ordained on the side of a street in downtown Seattle back in 82 and has seen himself as a missionary and Pastor ever since. Back in 1993 it all changed and he moved to Tacoma just 20 minutes away from Seattle, he did this because no one seemed to care about the urban poor in Tacoma and because no one else would do this he said that they must and they did. He’s loved Tacoma ever since and continues to do so to this day even in the midst of grief, he’s an inspiring individual who has encouraged me this week to seek out some of my intentions concerning Church planting and living intentionally.
I want you to know that the Gospel is real and moving in Seattle and Tacoma, I saw this in the city today and learning from Robert and Greg this whole week. So who do you love? How do you love your city? Or do you need to move to a city that isn’t being loved and love it because no one else is? These are the questions that linger this night as I watch my high schoolers listen to Jack’s Mannequin and play Phase 10.
Grace and Peace be with you.
C-DUB
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