Good and Busy

written by Hannah Boning

People keep asking me about the Fellows Program. How is it, they say, how's it going? I usually respond by saying, “good," and then follow it up with, “busy." Because I really have no idea how to describe how exactly it's been.

It's been a lot - early mornings dragging yourself out of bed, classes and papers and reading late into the night because of course we’re all procrastinators, so many weekend trips that you’re left feeling like you’re never actually in Greensboro, jobs and feeling our way into the grown-up world, Bible verses to memorize and to-do lists to keep track of.

But it’s also been morning prayer before the sun is up and heartfelt talks on road trips and dinner table conversations that we never want to end. It’s sitting around a bonfire making s’mores and it’s wandering around a used bookstore and piling books into each other's arms. It’s texting each other quotes from the church history reading and it’s cups of coffee together. It’s asking questions, the real and deep and hard questions that people sometimes shy away from. It’s ice cream on a perfect Friday afternoon. It’s nicknames and inside jokes and hashtags. It’s knowing that you have a family to sit with on Sunday morning. It’s praying for each other and sharing our stories. It’s holding hands as we pray the Lord’s Prayer before we separate. It’s Sunday afternoons spent playing soccer - or, watching others play soccer. It’s asking each other for help on the homework. It’s words of encouragement texted in the middle of a rough work day.

And everywhere, in all of it - it’s Jesus. 

These Fellows - this rag-tag bunch of people that has somehow transformed into a fast and true family - they are teaching me to throw my arms open wide and invite Jesus in. They are reminding me, daily, that wherever two or three are gathered, God is there.

He’s there because He loves us, because He claimed us as His, and so He will not leave us alone.

This thread is weaving through every aspect, every part of this journey - His presence. The Fellows are teaching to me to remember that God is always there, teaching me to look for Him, to seek in the every day.

And so He is there. He’s there at morning prayer and at family dinner. He’s there in the cups of the coffee and the afternoons on the soccer field. He’s there and I’m starting to see, starting to see God surrounding me. 

It’s beautiful, and it’s a blessing, and this Fellows family - they are loving me towards God. They are teaching me to remember, to see, to recognize, to give thanks, in all of it.

So it’s busy. But oh, it is good.

Meet Your New Brothers & Sisters

written by Kyle Gassaway

During the past six weeks I’ve gotten the unique opportunity to work with people that, in my main social circle, would have not been a part of my daily life.  These people I get to serve and be served by are the refugees from countries in Africa that have gone through much strife and difficulties with regards to war, economy, and government.  The first day of my internship, Alan told me that a major part of my week would be helping in the ministry of hospitality to the refugees.  I thought, “What a way to show the love of Christ to those that are strangers to this land and its culture.”  So basically my job would be to give rides to those that needed them and to help get them necessary things they needed to live.  It sounded easy enough.  It wasn’t until I actually met, face to face, the first family from a Rwandan refugee camp that I realized how precious this time was going to be with them.  Chantal, one of the refugees that came to Greensboro a year before and is part of Redeemer, translated between English and Kinyarwanda.  In this brief encounter I began to understand how special this opportunity was, to be with these people from so far away.  People that have the same desires as me.  People that want to learn and work and a make a way in this life.  People that are so grateful to be here, yet can’t help but feel out of place in a place where they try hard, but mostly fail to communicate the way we take for granted every day.  

So I am excited and have great hopes for my new friends from Africa.  I want them to find a home here with the people of Greensboro and Redeemer.  While I hope to teach them so much being with them, I already have learned much as I’ve heard stories of their lives in their homeland.  

They are a people of great strength, persistence, and love.  The truth is I see so much of what I am not in them.  I thank God for this opportunity to be among people that are so different from me, but at the same time just like me.  

May He show the world through our (which is really His) love for one another the beauty of His church, full of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

P.S. --- I urge you who read this to leave your comfort zone and get to know people that are different from you.  I think God can work on our hearts in a tremendous way when we seek to love and serve those that can be forgotten and overlooked.  Let’s be the ones God uses to show them they aren’t.

Meet:

Jean Pierre and Clementine and their children, Peter and Jean

Adolf and Jocelyn and their children Sany and Queen

Eric, Rose, Solange, Jean Claude

Chantal and Josiah and their children Nathan, Anna and Daniella

And many more I haven't had the privilege to meet yet

Hit My Heart

written by Graham Monroe

God is doing something on a heart level. Feelings are great but they have a tendency to follow truth. Truth can be known in our head all our lives but truth is applied when it reaches our hearts. For example, I can tell you that there are millions of people being forced to be a slave and sell their bodies right now in this world, some even in your city and you are likely to do nothing about that without your heart grasping the gravity of that situation. The reality of scripture has been hitting me on this heart level and I believe it is doing the same for the rest of the Fellows. In my opinion the most powerful testimonies we have to offer are the most recent testimonies. My most recent experience of God making scripture alive in my heart happened two days ago - I give credit to God and the stirring hunger that the Fellows Program has created in me. What was revealed to me was what many have probably heard a million times, but it seems to be a theme the past week. It is the concept of fearing God versus fearing Man. I am simply going to copy and paste what I wrote from my journal two days ago:

THIS IS WHY THE GOSPEL IS IMPORTANT!!! I can either live according to works or live according to who you (God) say I am! If I live according to works, I fear man. Fearing man says that, “If I succeed I’ll be happy but if I fail I’ll want to go into a hole because my life is ruined.” So now my joy comes from the outcome of my circumstances. THATS DUMB because all of a sudden others value me according to my success. If I were on an island alone, but I was super successful it just wouldn’t matter because if I am living according to how successful I am, and no one sees my success then what is the point?! So my joy comes from my success at the things I enjoy doing….as long as others see that success…and tell me in some way how awesome I am for being so successful. Well good luck with that life! CHOICE NUMBER 2 is living according to who God says that I am. You (God) tell me that you saw me as a failure, a weakling and a sinner and that is what separated us from each other. You sent your Son to be the perfect person I couldn’t be and then die the death I should have so that I could be close to You again. WAIT HOLD UP this means that if I succeed it doesn’t really matter because I’ll still be loved by God! If I fail it clearly doesn’t matter like I thought it did because God really loves me anyways. This doesn’t say I don’t do my very best at all things, but now my joy comes from the fact that I am loved. How do I know I am loved? Value is determined by the cost of something. God, you must have thought I was worth something when you sent your most valuable piece of heaven to die the death that I deserved to die.

Who hasn’t heard this before? I think I have heard this message a thousand times in a thousand different ways…but it finally hit my heart and I could not be more thankful. Like I mentioned earlier, when truth hits your heart it leads to action. Now that this truth has seriously hit my heart I feel as though I am acting out of who I am, when for so long I have been acting out of who I am not. I am acting out of the fact that I am God's son, instead of someone who is successful with a failed past, letting what other people think or say having way too much power. I hope and pray that you who are still reading may have God hit your heart in the areas that it needs to be hit, for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. GO and EAT!

Season of Becoming

written by Sarah Moubray

In this first month of being a fellows family together, a variety of rhythms have been working their way into our lives. Grace, laughter, love, prayer, rain, long nights, early mornings, community, the list could go on and on. In this time of transition, it has become so easy for me to get caught up in checking off items on my daily to-do list or going from one thing straight into the next. And although daily to-do lists are a great and much needed rhythm of my life, it is not what life is about. And although planning ahead and being prepared are also much needed rhythms in my life, they are not necessarily what life is about either. I started to get lost in all of the busyness of my everyday schedule and then I blinked. I blinked and the first month of our fellows program had already passed.

It’s probably hard to imagine this month seeming to fly by considering we did a million and one things in the past four weeks. From the mountains of Virginia, to Billy Graham’s library in Charlotte, to the Christian Community Development Association conference in Raleigh, to family dinners and soccer sundays and Monday morning prayer and church and ministry and work and class and everything in between, this month flew by in a way I never expected it could. But instead of getting lost in the chaos, I came across a quote from one of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequest, that is a perfect description of what these 9 months should be: “There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming.” That’s exactly what this season is for me. A season of becoming. Becoming who I am in Christ. Becoming a person who walks in Truth. Becoming someone who never stops pursuing Jesus. Letting God bring me in to the person He designed for me to become.

This new rhythm of becoming is something I want to focus on over these next 9 months. The last bits of a hot summer have now faded into the bright and brisk and beautiful season of fall and soon there will be a season of freezing cold and little red noses and frosty windows. Each of these seasons has distinct characteristics that set them apart from one another. I want this season of life to be set apart by simply becoming.