The Movie Star

The Stevens House is in the presence of greatness. Stephanie Bright, Emily's sister, is waiting and hanging out while she prepares to shoot a scene for an independent movie with THE Kristin Chenoweth!!!!!!!

We've loved having Stephanie in the twin cities this year, she's become part of the Stevens House family. She's totally our favorite actress, no offense to all the stars of Lost, Grey's Anatomy, or The Office.

She's playing the part of a nurse today, she's excited to rock the scrubs.

fire update

Dinomights a.k.a. Hockey in the Hood, an organization I partner with, and who office out of my building, have been doing a "Learn to Skate" program at Green Central. One of the boys from the family affected by the fire has been learning to skate with my friends and office mates. I just got an update from Leah, their program assistant. The school is doing something for the family, clothes, funds and stuff. She's getting me information for how we can get involved, and I'll post it soon.

Fire

About a year ago I woke up to the sound of kids playing in our alley. That afternoon when I came home from work the kids were still outside playing. I introduced myself to the four kids and they immediately brought me to their house to meet their mom, dad, and grandma. They had just moved in to our neighborhood, out of grandma's house for the first time in a long time and finally in their own place.

Over the past 12 months I've loved having this family as my neighbors. They are great students and atheletes. The 12 year old has completed over 10 5Ks through a mentoring program. All four of the older kids are often racing up and down our sidewalk, either running or on bikes. The youngest boy comes to see our garden and checks to see if our compost has turned to dirt yet.

At 5:00 am on Monday, the parents knocked on our window. "Our house is on fire!" I saw them briefly Monday morning, they were able to retrieve a couple garbage bags of belongings, but that's all they were able to save. By some grace all 5 kids, plus mom and dad, made it out safely. Grandma still lives in North Minneapolis and the family will be staying with her again until they figure out what else to do.

Praise God, everyone is safe. Please pray for this family this week, and also for the other neighbor kids who are scared about this happening to their own home, and missing their friends.

Bethany's Birthday

We celebrated Bethany's birthday last weekend, it was a great time to celebrate her and her 28 years. Lots of friends and neighbors and great food. Bethany rocks, she's a great roommate and a great ice cream chef. Here she is with Marisol and mango, pineapple coconut and strawberry kiwi sorbet. AMAZING!!!!!

Noel's not too bad a cook himself:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BETHANY!!!!

Hopefully there will be more parties this summer and more posts to commemorate them.

Saturday night we'll be grilling again, Park Avenue's summer staff will be coming over at the end of their retreat, and Bethany and some of our friends will be cooking up a storm.

who we are - what we love

Three years ago I moved into this enormous stucco house in South Minneapolis with 4 other people. Roommates have moved on, and new friends have moved in, but this house is consistantly one of the best things in my life.

Noel, Emily, Bethany, Wanda and Katie. That's our house now. We pray for each other, feed each other, watch out for each other. It's a healthy, holy, happy place to live.

I'm not the great author of our house, but I love reading blogs and want to put our life out there too.

I read the quote "We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love."by Francis de Sales on the Sojourners blog today and loved it. Our hope is that we will fall more in love with Jesus and that we will be known for doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly, welcoming friends and strangers, taking care of people and the earth, being present, listening, honoring God with our bodies, throwing great parties, resting well, working hard, and connecting with the father. That's our love, that's our hope, that's our spirituality.