Unbelievable Community

written by Molly Aldridge

Ever wish life was like a musical all of the time, with people randomly breaking out in song and dancing around? That’s kind of how life looks with the fellows 50% of the time. Since joining the fellows in September, I have danced and sang more at inappropriate times in public than ever before (ex. inside the halls of Greensboro College, walking down the street in every city we have visited, mingling in the inner harbor of Baltimore, the list goes on). So, when we started to think about the Greensboro Fellows Banquet…we decided that the night just couldn’t exist without some form of entertainment for our lovely guests. And being the extremely talented broadway performers than we are, we decided to design our own flash mob to a popular song from the movie Pitch Perfect (if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you should probably pause your reading of this and go check it out). I’m not sure what was more fun, actually performing our routine together at the Greensboro Fellows Banquet, or the hours we spent together attempting to perfect our routine and laughing hysterically.

While being able to dance, sing, and laugh together on stage was a lots of fun, the most memorable part of the night was being able to look out at the unbelievably supportive community that the Lord has built in Greensboro. As the plans for the banquet were underway, Tripp continued to share his vision for an event that would bring the community together; and I believe that is just what happened. The Lord has blessed us with an unbelievable community here. Through our internships, volunteer work, host families, and Church of the Redeemer, we are being showered with a loving and supportive community. In the past 6 months, the Lord has taught me so much about not only walking with Him, but also walking in community with Him. I was overwhelmed with joy on Thursday when I was able to see the people that have walked with me through life for the past 6 months all together in one room laughing, mingling, and eating together. We were graced by the presence of host families, mentors, real families, co-workers, church members, friends, local business owners, Christian organizations, past fellows, bosses, students, and the list goes on. For this community, we prayed that God would open hearts, plant seeds, make connections, and that our guests would feel appreciated and loved.

As the program is winding down (I am still in denial of this), we are all beginning to look to what next year holds. Whether we are attending graduate school, moving across the United States (or world), teaching in the classroom, serving in ministry, or staying right here in our beloved city of Greensboro…my prayer is that we will all seek out this same type of loving and supportive community of believers to walk with wherever the Lord takes us.

I also wanted to share this fitting verse that we read together yesterday during Morning Prayer:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Philippians 2:1-2

In conclusion, the banquet turned out to be an amazing event and I am SO thankful for this city and the community that God is continuing to build up and knit together here!