Make New Friends, But Keep the Old.....

Mira here. As we continue the looong process of unpacking and "getting settled" (who knows what that really means?) in this new place, Goose and I are increasingly thankful for the new and not-so-new friendships we have here in the city.

Last Saturday, we made our way to the north side for "The Party Also Rises," Matt and Cindy's gathering of couples in honor of Ernest Hemingway's birthday. We ate fabulous tapas and got to know some new people. It was also so great to seem some folks from Holy Covenant.

We left a bit early to stop by Mark and Julie's, our new neighbors that we met through Kristin and Amy, two different (unrelated) friends of ours. Mark and Julie live less than a block away from us, and their gathering to celebrate Mark's birthday spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of their building. We knew that Mark knew a lot of people, but this fact was reinforced when I saw some folks sporting t-shirts that had been printed for Mark's last birthday party. On the front it said in huge letters "RUA FOM?" I was confused until I read the fine print: "(friend of Mark)." On the back: "isn't everybody?"

On Monday evening, Goose, Mark and I took the Pink Line to Millenium Park for a samba concert and picnic. Mark's friend, Greg, joined us, and two other pairs of people Mark knows came up to say hello while we were there.


It really is the best place ever for a concert:


On our way to the concert, we stopped at another friend of Mark's (just a block in the other direction from our new house), and met two more neighbors of ours, Megan and Jon. Megan is a Mennonite pastor and I look forward to connecting with her again.

After the concert, we headed up to Belmont to visit with Joseph at the L & L Tavern, a classic from Goose's "Chicago's Best Dive Bars" book, a lovely gift from brother Scott Boy.

Yesterday evening, Goose and I met up with a small group of Holy Covenant-related folks at St. James Cathedral near downtown to walk their outdoor labyrinth. They labyrinth is an ancient tool for meditation and prayer. To read more, go here. To see what the kind of labyrinth we walked looks like, go here. If you've never experienced one, I encourage you to check out where there is one in your area. It was a much-needed time of prayer, and afterward we had a great time talking with folks at Rock Bottom, a brewery/pub down the street.

I am so thankful to God that we don't walk this life journey alone.

Nuestra casa nueva!

(That's "Our New House", for those of you who don't speak Spanish quite as fluently as Mira or I do).

Our move to the near southwest side was smooth and easy, thanks to the fine people at Smith Movers. We have had a mixed bag of moving experiences, so it was great to move out, move in and start cleaning all in the same day...and with nothing missing or broken. Does anybody know tipping expectations for movers? In the service industry it is important to let folks know that they are doing a great job--and nothing says that better than icy Gatorade and cold hard cash--but I have no idea what is considered reasonable. Anyway, let me walk you through what you've all been waiting for--pictures of the place, courtesy of Mira.

Here we have a great shot of the front of the parsonage (the word should be updated to pastorage, or in Mira's case, Lay-Person-Assigned-to-Ministry-age), with the church and its steeple peeking out behind.


You may notice that the cars in the church parking lot are lower than the sidewalk level. Every house on our block, and in our neighborhood, has a foundation that begins lower than street level, thanks to some creative structural engineering. So, the basement of the parsonage, which is a great secondhand store the benefits the church, is above ground! Anyway, this is the front of the parsonage.

Here is our kitchen, located in the rear of the house, which is light, spacious, and mostly unpacked! There is a dishwasher (not named Eric or Mira) and microwave built in (so we can donate our microwave to the thrift store!), and a bathroom off to the left rear.


This picture's point-0f-view is almost 180 degrees from the kitchen picture (kitchen is back, to the left), is looking toward the front of the house and shows what will be Eric's office/guest bedroom to the left, the dining room to the right, and a living area to the right rear. There is some nice wood work and a built in bench, which will sparkle up nicely with a good re-finish and cleaning.


This is the parking lot of the church and the east side of the house, with the church's garden area to the left. The sleek and stylish Volvo on the right is the car the camp is lending me to do its promotional video for the summer. This picture highlights the interesting difference in levels that exists in many houses in our neighborhood: the "basement" is on the ground level, but not underground, and the front entrance is at street/sidewalk level (though lots of places have steps that go up to the main entrance from the sidewalk) and stairs from the front take you down to the ground level.


Here is the interfaith garden I was talking about. That little structure houses an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with benches for prayer and meditation. That area also served as home plate for the home run derby I participated in on Sunday.


A view of the Lincoln United Methodist Church from the North.


We will post more pictures of the house when we have more unpacked and organized! We are excited to know some more of our neighbors and parishioners and to live within easy walking distance of so many resources (grocery, hardware, restaurants, cleaners, hairdressers, ice cream shops, bus and el, and a Target).

Anyway, before we moved we had some good times with some friends, mostly revolving around food. Our friends Andy and Lewis live in a building run by a benevolent and well-connected man named Dennis. He had a barbecue and told all the people in his building to invite their friends. Having qualified, we went. It was an awesome respite from the stresses of moving and was an opportunity to re-connect with friends who shared some things in common: Kristin, who is a national organizer for Interfaith Worker Justice, Will, who is a lawyer working for a labor union of federal workers, and Anne, who is an Albion grad and an organizer for UNITE-HERE. Lewis' mom was in town, as well, and made some yummy food for everybody. They live in a great location and have a wonderful landlord!

Mira and I enjoying the moment.


Will, Kristin, and Eric sharing a laugh.


General party fun.


We also had a chance to have breakfast with fellow Garrett grads and friends Maiko and Joey at our favorite restaurant/bar/progressive bookstore gift shop, the Heartland Cafe. It was a celebration of our move, Mira's new job, Joey's new job, Maiko's renewal of her visa and acceptance into another educational opportunity. There were omelets, burritos, pancakes, eggs, and about six gallons of coffee.

Maiko and Joey in the Heartland's sun porch.


Eric and Mira sporting the grays.


Mira's shirt reads in Spanish: "Ningun ser humano es illegal" or "No human is illegal," referring to American society's errant tendency to label people as "illegals" who are merely doing what each of us would do in order to feed our families. Eric's shirt reads "Intramural Sports Champions 2003-2004," invoking a memory of the triumphant and unexpected Garrett-Evangelical (team name, "Amish Jihad") intramural football season. While both messages are not equally profound, they are indeed equally powerful.

The following is an image of an event that we initially thought was going to result in a gang-type turf war. Disappointingly, it was a harmless paper drop-off at our old corner liquor store.

Two books

Mira here. I just zipped through these two true stories of immigrant journeys in less than a week and thought I would share them with you. I found both at my neighborhood public library, and you can, too! If you only read one, I recommend Enrique's Journey, but both are amazing and significant.


Enrique's Journey is the story of a teenage boy from Honduras who left home to find his mother, who had gone to the United States to work eleven years before. He joins huge numbers of other Central American immigrants who have to cross through Mexico without smugglers and do so by riding on top of freight trains, just to get to the US/Mexico border. If you think that the US is hostile toward the undocumented, you should see how the folks in Chiapas respond to those entering "illegally" from the less-developed countries to the south. It is absolutely shocking what people as young as 10 go through every day--hunger, thirst and extreme weather; constant fear of being robbed, killed, or injured severely by police, bandits, gangs, locals; risk of dismemberment or death as they hop on and off the train, and try not to fall from the top; and deportation to Guatemala, which most experience multiple times before making it through Mexico. The author retraced Enrique's journey through Mexico, actually riding atop the trains--of course, she had lots of protection and resources, but it is still a very courageous act of journalism.

The trip itself is worth the read, but this book also significant because it explores the struggle behind a poor mother's impossible decision--will she leave for the US and send enough money home (if she makes it--literally and metaphorically) for her kids to eat well and attend school, or will she remain physically present with them and accept that they will almost certainly need to drop out of school to work, and will live with hunger and in grinding poverty for most or all of their lives. The author, Sonia Nazario, explores the deep scars this separation, and often times, the process of reuniting, inflicts on children and families. I highly recommend this book.

The Devil's Highway has a little different flavor--it is definitely more slang-y and less politically correct, but the story of this treacherous journey is also important. In 2001, 26 men, most from Veracruz, set out with a coyote (smuggler) to cross the border into Arizona. They were told that the walk through the desert would take 1 1/2 days and to bring water for that amount of time. But something went wrong along the way, and the group, with their 3 coyotes, wandered lost for 5 days with temperatures up to 115 degrees. Only 12 men and one coyote survived. The one smuggler, who was only 19 at the time and who had moved to a border town to work and send money south to his family (he hadn't originally intended to become a grunt for a wide-reaching smuggling racket) took the "official" blame for the tragedy and will spend the rest of his life in an Arizona prison. Sadly, it takes a whole group of people dying in the desert to make news--at least 2 people die while attempting to cross that desert every day.

The author, Luis Alberto Urrea, describes the horrific journey (including the grotesque things that happen to the body through the stages of heat stroke as the sun slowly kills) and the border policies that have pushed people to cross into more and more dangerous and desolate parts of the desert, while also managing to point us to the humanity of all involved, including the coyotes and US Border Patrol agents.

The authors of both books explore the complexity of the current immigration situation, and both conclude that until the countries of origin of these sojourners can provide jobs that allow people to support their families, people will continue to come, regardless of how tight the security, how severe the penalties, how dangerous the journey. Nazario says that she met one youth in southern Mexico who was beginning his 28th attempt to make it to the US. What if the efforts of people, leaders and ordinary folks like us, in the US were on making his hometown a good place for him and his family to stay, instead of fighting to keep him out?

Old friends, new friends

Yesterday, we had dinner at Lou Malnatis' (perhaps the best deep-dish Chicago-style pizza) with Corey and Karen, who we last saw before any of us were married! Corey's family used to live across the street from my family in Holland and we used to play ping-pong all the time!


Church was really great this morning, in spite of the heat. I couldn't believe that, in a church with no air conditioning, all the worship leaders decided to go ahead and wear robes for the service on a 95 degree day! We are nuts.

Here are a few photos from fellowship time after the service. Eric and Jesus, both with a relatively limited grasp of each other's native language, managed to have quite a long, involved conversation. Eric's Spanish is coming back to him pretty quickly, and I'm sure it will only get better.



Sisters Jovita and Maribel, and some of their girls--Roxana, Yesenia, Zayra, and Esmeralda.


Marta and part of her family--Sandra and Marta-- with one of Jovita's grandsons, Miguel Angel:


Ana Karen with Ricardito, another grandson of Jovita. He had been crawling all over the place outside!


Jessica just became a member of the church last Sunday and is very proud of her certificate:


Hanging out in the church garden--a small but precious green space that is all to uncommon in the city! Thankfully, the ice cream man came by a few minutes later to offer refreshment (Lalo offered a bit of his own refreshment now and again with that hose).


It has been so great spending time with and starting to get to know these wonderful people!

When we got home, it was too hot to stay inside, so we headed across the street to the beach. We waded out to our waists and started throwing the frisbee around, and soon a couple of kids came over and started trying to intercept it. The group grew until there were about 15 kids shouting--here! here!!--and diving all over to catch that frisbee and toss it to someone else. It was lots of fun.

Church and Life

Things have been great so far at Lincoln UMC. Everyone was so welcoming on our first Sunday and the bilingual service, whose flow it will take me a bit to get the hang of, was really nice. After the service, we shared a meal and a welcoming cake for us and for Jessica, a new member who joined the church that day.


I spent most of my first week visiting with people and learning more about the church. I met kids at the free lunch program and joined the adolescent girls for part of their sport-oriented program (both programs put on by the community center housed in the church), and I wandered a bit around the neigborhood. On Wednesday, it seemed that every other street was closed off for a block party, and kids rode bikes while parents cooked on the BBQ. One of the veteran members (she has been there over 60 years!) had me over for coffee and shared about the history of the church--and about her own life. I showed up to help unload boxes from the depository for the food pantry Friday, but the church van had broken down and distribution had to be cancelled for the week. It's a small congregation that is doing a whole lot in the community. For a church with only 40-some members, it's amazing that they have a half-time pastor, a Deacon and an administrative assistant, and house a community center with two paid staff.

We are very excited to move down to the Pilsen neighborhood, which is predominantly Latino and is full of energy and life. If you want to read a bit more about what it's like, check out this website.

We'll be posting more as we continue to learn more about our new church community and neighborhood. We plan to move out of our apartment and into the parsonage on Monday the 16th.

This past Tuesday, we celebrated Diane's 30th birthday at the Hopleaf, a beer-lover's Mecca (it's still cool for those of us who don't like beer). Wonder Woman and friends. Lisa was really excited about something here.


Julie (so patriotic) and Carrie.


Typical Goose face on the bus.


Walking home from the bus.


On the 4th, we cooked a fabulous dinner with Lewis, then Andy came down and we played Euchre and watched baseball before heading to the roof to catch the Evanston fireworks.



Lots of folks were out on the beach all day (and into the night).




Goose posing with all of the things around the kitchen table that match his shirt at lunch today: