Posts Tagged ‘fishtown’

Best things that happened this week: 6/15/10

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010by melissadipento

A collection of good things happening all around us lately.

See Paul (and his journey) on our wall
On Sunday, 51 people gathered at Broad and Washington for the monthly network AMPM, a public meeting designed with kids and families in mind.

Courtney Jones recaps what happened on Sunday:

“We went on a journey with Paul and Silas, got thrown in jail, sang praises, had an earthquake, and introduced the jailer to Jesus.  We also learned to do the Fanga (a Nigerian dance) and ate trail mix as part of our journey!”

As part of the journey, the kids (with some help) created a huge map that shows all of the places Paul visited along the way. The map is now hanging up in our hallway for all to enjoy!

The AMPM happens every second Sunday at Broad and Washington at 10am. Join us next month!

Stakeholders met

Over 40 people from the Broad and Washington congregation turned out to Rod and Gwen’s backyard on Saturday night for a stakeholders meeting. Rod said he was encouraged and energized by the meeting and the peaceful, but intense discussion was amazing.

New song to sing along

Bryce led the Haddon and Fern congregation with a new song he had written, along with Kent and Lizz, based on psalm 30. Nate Hulfish said it was the first new song created by the congregation and he felt moved by it.

Why this pain? Why this pit?
You’ll hear no praises from the dust…
…while I am dust.

I will exalt you –
I will exalt you –
I will exalt you, O LORD

You turned my wailing into dancing
You gave me clothes to wear, and covered me with joy –
My heart will sing and sing and sing to you
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever

Art Shop Garden Fest

Over 50 artists came together at Frankford and Norris on Friday and Saturday to selling their wears and homegrown warm weather crops. The first summer Art Shop was a big success!

Film Screening

On Thursday, Broad and Washington hosted a film screening of Soldiers of Conscience. Over 30 people turned out for the event. The film documented the lives of eight American soldiers, including four who decide not to kill and become conscientious objectors and four who believe in their duty to kill if necessary.

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Welcome to the neighborhood Leotah’s Place!

Friday, June 4th, 2010by melissadipento

(Brittney “Blew” Lewis and Kristen Baskin of Leotah’s Place)

I am writting this to celebrate the opening of Leotah’s Place Coffeehouse (2033 E York St) on May 21, 2010. Blew and Kristen have been working on this project for a long time, and it is great to see their dreams coming to life.
Leotah’s Place’s mission of providing, “a warm, welcoming space for neighbors; a hub for both community activism and greater cultural awareness, and an affordable coffeehouse where people from all walks of life can enjoy a cup o’ love,” is evident everyday at the shop. Just yesterday a teacher brought several of his high school journalism classes to utilize the space because their class room was too hot. Within the first week of business the emerging local food co-op held an organizing meeting. Neighbors who have lived much of their lives in the neighborhood come in for some tea or coffee, to spend some time, and feel comfortable to do so.
(submitted by DJ Robinson)

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Africanized Paradigms

Sunday, November 9th, 2008by joshua grace

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Steve Biko, in his essay White Racism and Black Consciousness wrote “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift—a more human face.”  His idea was not limited to just showing South Africa-but restoring to the rest of people on the planet the important worldview more communitarian and a more people-before-stuff way to live.

I’m grateful that we have lots of opportunities to not only learn about Biko, but about the larger context of people that he spoke from.  One of those is the upcoming West African Drumming Classes

In getting ready for the next round of classes, some friends and I spent a few hours last night building drums (photo set here).
It takes a lot of hard work and a long time to just put a djembe together, before you can even play it (and play many together).  It is not a very rapid process, and we had some great conversations last night about how easier it would be to use a fiberglass drum and throw a synthetic head on it (rather than having to stretch an African goatskin across hand-carved wood).

How often we face a similar temptation with our spirituality.  Do we really have to be a community?  Do we really need to pull 100′ of rope just to be able to play a drum?  Does it have to stink like a dead goat from Guinea?  Isn’t there an easier way to get transformation?  Isn’t there a way that requires less time or effort to follow Jesus.

Meko, Rachel, and Jay in the re-heading process of a djembe

I’m reminded of the old African proverb that goes something like “if you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”  I guess you could try to find an easier way, or attempt to invent some trick to “get there” quicker with Jesus.  Even if you could, would you really want to?

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