Well, here we go! — Raleigh Fellows Program

That phrase sums up the month of September. This month has been filled with a lot of “news”. Not the sad stuff that you see on the TV, but instead new things, ideas, practices, and people. An obvious update is that I started the fellows program. For the purposes of this blog (haha, so professional), I will talk about adjustments, retreats, and all things fellows!

September has, in a lot of ways, been a month of adjustments. In fact, adjustments are a dime a dozen for a guy who has spent his last four years in Raleigh. It’s challenging to be inserted into a new community in a place where I already have one. That’s not to say that it’s been a bad adjustment, but an adjustment nonetheless. I truly love spending my time with the noble people of North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Kansas. The fact is, it’s hard to learn how to spend time with all of the people that you love. Even though it’s hard, it’s just life. I am eager to grow further in loving the people that I love well. Working has been an adjustment. I am only working three days a week, and let me say… I don’t know how people that have been working every day each week for years, or even decades, are still functioning. My deepest admiration and respect goes out to the workforce of the world. I also have a host family now, and let me be the first to tell you that they are the best! This is a shout out to the Daniel family. If ya’ll stumble upon this blog please hear that you are all the best, and please believe those words. They have made the transition of moving in with a family that isn’t your own seamless and exciting. I’ve seen God in the way each of them have loved me over the past month.

The past month, we (da fellows) had the opportunity to go on some retreats. To kick things off, we all went to our fearless director Ashley Crutchfield’s lake house. In that first week I learned some things; I equally love and am terrified of jet skis, the wholesome people of Kansas play a game called “Big Carrot”, and there is no better way to be forced into community than doing so in a lake house. Some of that last sentence doesn’t even make sense. For example, they don’t even produce a lot of carrots in Kansas, but maybe the carrots are just bigger there. Who really knows? We also went to lead a youth ministry retreat for Church of the Apostles. I led 6th and 7th grade boys and had the time of my life. I love that age because some of the guys are giants, some of them are small, and they all just do their thing. Whatever that means…This week I found out that it meant origami and magic tricks, which begs the question; why did I pay for college when I can learn cooler things for free? Nevertheless, the retreats were fun and I can’t wait for more!

Rounding out the highlights of September are tutoring at Neighbor to Neighbor and Roundtable. Getting the opportunity to tutor has been a blessing. I feel like I’m learning a lot too. It’s probably not such a bad thing to have another pass at math, even if it is second grade math. Roundtable has been one of my favorite spaces so far. This month we shared life stories. I believe that when we learn more about people who love God, WE love God more and gain a deeper understanding of the way he loves us. What a gift it is to be able to listen and to be invited into that. Thanks for that God.

With that my update for month one comes to a close. Here we go indeed! I have been blessed through community and through service, and I cannot wait to see how God continues to show up in those spaces. September was a good one.

Till next time, Matt