Jordan Leahy
My plans for next year...
The first time I heard of Mission Year was from a friend who did MY Oakland in 03-04. She kept telling me how great of an experience it was for her and strongly encouraged that I do it myself. The more she told me, the more I wanted to be a part of it. After much prayer about direction after college, I felt that God was leading me to MY. I applied, and here I am. I can’t wait for this year to start and look forward to meeting people and share (and receive) God’s love.
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Jordan Leahy's Blog
Busted. / Jul 25, 02:35 PM
This article is pretty funny and hit the nail on the head.
We’re all caught…
Comment [1]
Note. / Jul 25, 02:31 PM
Today I got a note from one of the women at work. It said “Thank You!!!” on the outside. When you open it up it says “For being my friend.”
It probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is.
People make changing the world out to be this huge thing where you do all this stuff that people see. It’s not a huge thing. It’s a way of life, a day-to-day thing.
I’ll have made a difference if people know that I actually give a crap about them. I’d venture to say that’s what Jesus did.
Peace.
Guilty of being white. / Jul 21, 02:48 PM
So Mission Year ends in like 2.5 weeks.
There are all sorts of feelings related to that.
The one that stands out the most at this point is guilt.
The people I’m leaving don’t get a chance to pick up and leave for somewhere else. They’re stuck. They ask questions like “why are you leaving?” I’m like, “well, Chicago’s not home. God’s calling me to other things.”
And both of those things are true. But that doesn’t always make sense to people. There’s a mix of responses you get. They say “you’re going back to your home,” which has many implications of wealth and comfort. I even heard one woman say “you’re going back to rich town” to Lindsey.
I’m associated with places and things that I don’t necessarily want to be. I don’t know how to handle that. Very few people have any idea about me and what I value.
It’s hard to chew on.
Peace.
Comment [1]
My Name is Jordan. / Jul 10, 09:42 AM
So a terribly common theme this year is people forgetting my name. It certainly doesn’t help that one of my teammates looks remotely like me and has a name that sounds remotely like mine. When trying to get my attention, people almost more often than not say “Hey Joe!”
I understand all that when people are from different cultures it’s easier to mix up names, but it’s getting to be a bit much. At first it was funny. Then it was really annoying. Then I got over it. Now I’m really tired of it. I’ve been her almost a year. My name is not Joe. We don’t even look that much alike. And even if we did, I was born first, so Joe looks like me. I don’t look like him (no offense Joe).
Yesterday one guy even went as far as to call me “Joey.” I was thinking “you gotta be kiddin’ me.” No one calls Joe “Joey.” And I’m not Joe.
Jordan. Like Michael. I’m in Chicago. It shouldn’t be that hard to remember, right?
My name is Jordan.
Peace.
Comment [2]
Cornerstone and Stuff. / Jul 10, 09:41 AM
Oh dear. It’s been far too long since I updated. Apologies all around.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend Cornerstone Fest in Bushnell Illinois to do recruiting for Mission Year. I’d wanted to go to Cornerstone since I was like 15 so I was more than excited to go. There was much recruiting. There were great bands (Revolution Radio, mewithoutYou, the psalters, The Last Hope, O.C.D., Flatfoot 56, Sleeping Giant) and good times in general. I got to hang with swell folks like Samantha Herod and Chris Lahr and meet all kinds of stellar people.
Sam and I got a ride back and had quite a time once we got back into the city. We dropped off our newfound Australian friend, Belinda at the hostel downtown. As we were pulling away our car scratched against a parked car. There were police “stationed” on the corner for Taste of Chicago and they saw the whole mess.
We backed up and they said they’d have to call for a car because none of them had any reports one them. No sweat. After about 15 minutes the one officer comes over and says “it’s gonna take a while, they’re real busy. This is not a big deal though. Seriously.” The same thing happened another 20 minutes or so later. One of the officers even went as far to hit on the driver of our car…
Long story short, we ended up driving to the station to file our info there and get a report. The officer at the station said “just leave a note on the car.” So we go back to leave the note and the guys say “we didn’t think you were coming back.” I’d venture to suggest that Jesus would sit and put up with all the running around and come and go back to wherever he was told even when it wasn’t necessary. I was pretty stoked when I thought of it, as I’d been praying throughout the whole ordeal as to how I could be like Jesus when I was getting played by cops. Thanks you Jesus.
Interesting developments in my life: I don’t think I’ve ever been too good at having “vision” or whatever. Knowing this has prevented me from doing things I want to do and am good at doing and kept me in places where I don’t feel useful because I’m not good at whatever it is I’m doing. I now know this and am going to work against it. More on that in the coming weeks…
Peace.
