created for community

created for community. i think that was the name of our theology textbook at bethany. hmmm. interesting how that relates.

i was nervous earlier this evening for the party that i was throwing tonight. but it went quite well. my next door neighbour and i planned a little get-together at my house for all the neighbour ladies on our street. most of us on our street only built our houses in the last year or three. and it was high time we got to know our neighbours. we handed out about 18 invites a few days ago. tonight, there was a grand total of 6 of us. not surprising, but maybe a little disappointing. oh well. we needed to start somewhere. i love how multicultural my little mennonite hometown is becoming. out of the 6 of us, there were 2 filipinos, one australian, someone originally from bolivia, a girl i went to high school with and myself. we had food and coffee and just sat around and talked. it was a nice start to building this thing that is known as "community".

maybe next time more will come and share their ethnic food with us, like the east indian woman who sounded pretty enthusiastic about coming (i'm quite surprised she didn't show up). maybe even the atheist across the street who was very adamant that she was not going to come over if this was a "church group or religious meeting" because she was an atheist! or the wife of the guy who stumbled to the door with just his pants on (undone) after we woke him up in the middle of the afternoon (his wife was still sleeping). oh community. what a strange thing you are. i've never found myself in this situation before and it excites and terrifies me. yes, i've lived in close community at bible school where we all lived and ate and partied and studied together - but we all had the common bond of our faith and somewhat similar expectations of friendships. and as a kid i knew the neighbour kids well, thanks to the effort and friendships of our parents. but here i am in this new place. our common bond is that we all own houses within the vicinity of one another. and that we're humans. and as humans, we were created by our maker with an innate desire for relationships. and these relationships may be used to draw others into the one relationship that we were all created for. a relationship with our maker.

here i am.