Howdy blog!
For a quick October recap, here’s some fun things that happened:
We went on a walking tour of Raleigh with our Just Leadership class that was led by Raleigh Pilgrimage
Spent a weekend at Docksology (Ashley and Sam’s lake house) with the Crutchfields and the guy fellows (where I caught my personal best catfish and spotted bass!)
Volunteered with Jenna (who invited us to do this), AG, Lola, and Bailey at Forgiven Ministries, which is an amazing prison ministry
Went to a Duke football game with Luke (former fellow who invited us), Josh, and AG
Celebrated birthdays for AG, Ryan, Jenna, Virginia (fellow who recruited me), and Meg (did fellows with Virginia)
After two months of Fellows, I think the part that is pushing me towards Christ the most so far is my job at Neighbor to Neighbor. Each day can look a little bit different, and we (me and AG) are always working from the moment we get to work until the moment we leave. This is building up a lot of experiences within me that are valuable, whether it is determining the best plan of action to help a teen catch up in a class, driving a 15 passenger van around Southeast Raleigh, managing relationships and conflict in said van, tutoring for algebra, playing hours and hours of quarterback for the elementary age boys, rebounding basketballs for a teen excited to try out for his high school team, creating and automating spreadsheets to organize all sorts of educational data, and so much more. A lot of the work isn’t impressive, but I trust that it is exactly where the Lord wants me to grow. Having a vastly different background than the kids in the program is completely changing my perspectives in leadership, people’s background and circumstance, what is just, and what it really looks like to follow Christ. All of this change is simply coming from building relationships with people and serving them, and I am so thankful to be able to do that with the Neighbor to Neighbor community four times a week. While I spend some time getting to pour into that community, it feels like God is blessing me through it even more than I ever could do for them.
Also, I can’t say nice things about the Neighbor to Neighbor community without also saying a little bit about the fellows community. Ashley and Sam are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, and it has been so wonderful living with them. It has been great continuing to learn more about the other fellows and building stronger friendships during this month. AG, Bailey, Celeste, Elijah, Emma, Evy, Jenna, Joe, Josh, Lola, Ryan, Skip, and Tessa are a fantastic group to do this season of life with as we all figure out how to do Raleigh Fellows together. Also, the fellows alum and overall church community have been so welcoming and inclusive of this new class of fellows.
This might be an abrupt ending, but thanks for reading!
Tootles!
Bryan