After all the wedding work, we were ready to get back into the swing of huddles. Robert’s huddle felt significantly smaller with two less people. It also felt more intimate and like more people were able to share and work through their plans for change in their lives. Although the other couple was missed, we realized 12 might have been too many people.
There was one day that was pretty defining in July for the huddle that we were leading. We were discussing the fact that we wanted to have a mission for our group but that we did not really have a clue as to what that would be.
Jarred had just read that finding a mission can sometimes be as simple as just looking out your window. So, we sat in Katy and Jon’s living room, looked out the window and prayed. Then we split up into two groups to walk around the neighborhood and see who was out and see if we might see a need.
I went out with Christopher and Courtney and Jarred went out with Katy and Jon and one of their dogs. My group ran into some interesting characters. Most notably, we stopped in the parking lot of a shabby strip of stores because we saw people selling some things.
We walked up to them and started asking them questions about what they were doing and why. They were collecting money for an organization called “The Stone the Builder Rejected.” The organization was helping homeless vets get housing in the neighborhood. They would collect items for donations so they could turn around and sell them to get money to fund their project. We really connected with them and prayed with them before we left.
On our walk back to the house we discussed the possibility of our mission being connected with them. We could have our group collect items to donate to them and since the vets were being put up in our neighborhood, we could then start relationships with them.
We were excited when we got back to the house because we had it all worked out. It turned out that so did the other group. They had come across a neighbor who had TONS of things in his front yard. He told them if they ever needed anything, they could check with him and he’d give it to them. They had realized the need amongst the neighbors for such household items. Their idea was to connect the two groups of neighbors, the haves with the have nots.
As we prayed about it, we decided that what we would do would be a rummage sale once a month. We would have our group collect things to put out for a free yard sale. If people wanted to donate money we would give it to the organization The Stone the Builders Rejected. We also tossed around the idea that people would bring stuff to exchange so that they could replenish the stash and feel like they were contributing. What we knew for sure is that we did not want someone to feel obligated to give. We wanted to bless the neighbors and start to meet people to dig further into what our specific mission would be.
Our new family headquarters.
As always, we would love to hear about what you are doing with missional communities in your context. Please feel free to share in a comment below. Also, if you have questions about anything we are doing, feel free to ask and we will get back to you as quickly as possible! Thanks for following along.
Love,
The Irby's
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