Watson
The Adventure Ahead of Us!
Thanks for visiting our blog and being part of our support team!
We’re so excited for the adventure ahead of us this year! We’ve been thinking about Mission Year for awhile now (learning about M.Y. Married was actually a jump-start to our own discussions about marriage…now here we are married and about to do the Mission Year Married program! Yay God!). Since last September (2007) when we got married, we’ve been living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and seeking ways to serve others and live out a kingdom lifestyle. We both are volunteers on Sunday mornings at our church, Mars Hill, where John helps in the Special Needs ministry and Faith helps in children’s ministry. John also gives lots of time to just helping people with random needs from yardwork to moving to renovating a house. Faith also loves serving at a domestic abuse shelter on “pampering nights” where we get to pour out love and connect with women in difficult circumstances.
So, you may ask, why are we doing Mission Year this year? We’re more than happy to tell you! Both of us, first individually and now as a married couple, love serving others, and we’ve had many thoughts and dreams about how we could do that. We saw this opportunity more than a year ago, and God has kept it close to our hearts (even through wedding planning and settling into married life!) as something we wanted to do. We think it’s a great way to begin our life together, establishing a foundation of ministry and lifestyle that we can carry throughout the rest of our lives. Mission Year includes receiving intentional training, living in community with others, being involved in a local church, serving in volunteer community service jobs, building relationships with our neighbors, and seeking justice in the city. Through that, we are excited to learn how to love God and love others in life-changing ways, and to develop a “Mission Life” to take with us when we are finished with the year.
Needless to say, we’re really excited that you are joining us on this adventure! We’ll definitely need your prayers as we anticipate a year full of challenges as well as excitement! And we’d love to hear from you! Check back often for more updates throughout the year. Thanks so much!
~ John & Faith Watson ~
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…
Watson's Blog
This is our neighbor, this is Jesus / Nov 24, 11:32 AM
What does a good Christian look like? I say, they look like Jesus.
The first time we met her she wholeheartedly welcomed us to the neighborhood and said, “If anyone gives you any trouble, call me. I have guns, knives and I’ll take care of ‘em.” We laughed, not knowing what to think, and she said, “Don’t laugh, I’m serious!” And she is. She’s a tiny woman, but you wouldn’t want to mess with her fiery, passionate nature. When she invited us into her home, she asked if we’d be bothered if she smoked pot in front of us. That’s one we hadn’t heard before.
Did you miss seeing Him? Look again…
It was probably the most powerful and holy prayer I’ve ever heard, the most blessed dinner I’ve ever eaten. The depth of the prayer and the Truth in it amazed me. I thought we were inviting our urban neighbor to dinner to bless her, but instead it seemed the presence of Jesus was in our midst because of her. And when dinner was over, she jumped to help me clean up the dishes. On her car it says “GodsKid”; she holds Bible study every Wednesday; Our Daily Breads are scattered around her house, well-used; and she has made us feel at home in our new neighborhood. She bought us a welcome/birthday cake (for John) in October; had us over to watch the Falcons football game and shared food and drinks; invited us to have a real southern dinner in a few weeks; and has brought us under her wing of protection and care. Her home is a place of welcome and safety and peace to anyone. Her energy and laughter and enthusiasm are inspiring and uplifting. She loves her neighbors in very tangible ways. She gives abundantly, loves abundantly, and has grace abundantly because she knows God’s abundant Grace meets her abundant need for grace.
She owns guns and smokes pot and loves Jesus.
This is our neighbor, and I see Jesus in her more than I see Jesus in myself.
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playing like a child / Oct 13, 10:20 AM
Do you remember the last time you felt like a child? My favorite part of the day is this spot along the way to my volunteer work site where the sidewalk is covered with little acorns that snap under my shoes. I step every which way, tripping over my feet in order to find every single acorn to snap, smiling all along. It’s like popping bubble-wrap, pure childish pleasure!
Then I remember that my job is also to play; I work at the Andrew P. Stewart Center, an after school program for elementary students. I get excited every afternoon when I see the bus pull up and the precious children I’ve quickly grown to love pour and tumble and push their way off the bus. Some give me hugs and high fives; some are a bit tougher to connect with. I play hard all afternoon and laugh and push swings and turn the merry-go-round till I’m wiped out. And it’s so much fun!
Through it I’ve discovered that playing is a very spiritual activity. In our team devotions, we read a chapter from Bob Lupton’s book Theirs is the Kingdom. It talked of kingdom playgrounds where God’s children play with great intensity because, “They learn that their gifts, which they once thought were useful only for making money in the marketplace, are actually the exact abilities needed to work in God’s kingdom. In these unlikely places, God’s children discover the serious work of eternity is simply the joyful employment of the talents they desire most to express.”
You see, we were never created to be adults anyway! “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:3).
God orchestrated me working at the Stewart Center; I didn’t have anything to do with it and almost passed up the opportunity because it didn’t seem to fit into “my” ideal or plan. Yet it’s exactly the place where He knew the talents I desired most to express would be a perfect fit, both in spending time with the kids and also employing my communication skills through administrative tasks. I love this kingdom playground where God has set me free to play!
And so I ask you: where has God set you free to play? And where have you turned away from “childish” things in order to oblige adult expectations? Ask God to teach you how to play and dream again, in His Kingdom Playground.
~Faith
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The fun has arrived! / Sep 18, 01:18 PM
Like a whirlwind, August disappeared and we are now settling into life in Atlanta. We left Michigan on Tuesday, Sept 2 with our car full to the brim (literally!). We drove down to Huntington, West Virginia to visit Faith’s dear friend Moriah and her family. Then from there we drove through Kentucky and Tennessee, crossing the North Carolina border in the Smoky Mountains, where we spent two days camping and hiking. It was beautiful and a wonderful time of rest and retreat from the busy stresses of the previous few weeks and in preparation for our year ahead. We arrived in Atlanta on Friday afternoon to check into the Mission Year office, meet our teammates and Mission Year city teams (there are 25 of us in Atlanta), and then go to our new home and unpack.
We spent some time on Saturday exploring the neighborhood and getting to know our teammates (through an inaugural strategy board game of Settlers of Catan). Sunday we attended our home church for the year, First Congregational Church, which meets just down the street. With a warm southern welcome, we were introduced to the congregation and from the pulpit were informed, “We got your back!” We’re all looking forward to becoming part of church life there.
Sunday we packed up stuff for a week at God’s Farm, where we gathered with the other Mission Year cities (Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Camden NJ, and Wilmington DE). There are about 96 people doing Mission Year this year, and it was awesome to join together as one team. Five days of sessions, speakers, discussions and prayer to orient us and prepare us for the year ahead. We were challenged and inspired in many ways. It was a great time of learning and focusing our hearts on seeking God’s heart and eyes for our cities.
We were excited to get back home to Atlanta on Thursday evening after camping in tents all week! And not just that, but to begin settling in even more and start meeting neighbors. Fridays this year are our Sabbath days, so we got to sleep in, process the info we got at God’s Farm, relax and go downtown to the city center to hang out. Saturday we went shopping and did laundry. The six of us split up and we were all quite a sight: three toting suitcases and laundry bags to the Laundromat on the corner, and the other three (bless their hearts!) carrying two weeks of groceries back home a half mile from the store. Yipes! In the afternoon, we walked up and down the square mile of our neighborhood, Vine City, to become familiar with local businesses, schools, neighbors and parks. Lots of people were really friendly and we learned quite a bit about our neighborhood in just a few hours.
This week ahead has us in some more city-specific training for our Atlanta teams. We’re beginning to explore possible service sites for our volunteer jobs. There are a number of places nearby (after school programs, women and children shelters, health centers). We’ll be deciding and starting those jobs toward the end of September or early October.
We’re also coming up on our first wedding anniversary on Monday, September 22! It’s crazy to think we’ve been married a year already; how fast it’s gone! But we’re so thankful for how God has helped us grow, both individually and together, in this last year. And we’re very excited for this coming year, to see what God has for us.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and support! We’re finally here! We’ll hopefully have regular blog updates so you can hear what’s happening and know how to pray.
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