For four years Kate and I had expected to move to Edmonton - with support financial, practical, and moral from our community in Lethbridge - with solid plans and first steps - with a job - with a place to live - but in September of 2008, we arrived with none of what we thought would be necessary to begin. Besides this, we were hurt, confused, and broken by what we had left in Lethbridge. Our confidence, our vision, and even our view of God and the church were badly damaged.
What we did have was six friends who shared our vision for community in Edmonton. Four were ready to move in with us, including Joshua, who moved with us from Lethbridge, James from Peterborough, who we'd met by chance through the camp we volunteered at before our move, David, who lived in Edmonton and worked at the Hope Mission, and Bethany, also from Ontario, who we'd been introduced to through a mutual friend in Edmonton. The four of us, along with two other Edmonton friends began immediately to imagine and plan the next step.
Joshua, James, Kate and I had all moved to Edmonton without a place to live. We discovered quickly that six jobless, homeless young people are not most landlord's favourite ideas for tenants. Add the detail that we planned to have community events in our home, and we were in for a struggle. For two months the four of us lived in friend's guestrooms and on couches. Kate and I were taken in by two different families from a Brethren church in town that wanted to help us. We went back and forth between the two homes.
I remember identifying with a story of Abraham in Hebrews 11 that described Abraham moving to a place that he believed God would give him a home in, and living there as a stranger in tents. There is a feeling in not having a home that I had never experienced before or since. At the best of times, it was extremely humbling and somewhat scary, at the worst it was humiliating and wreaked havoc on our already badly damaged confidence. There was one night at the end of September where I went to bed, actually unsure of where my wife and I would sleep the next night. We were strangers.
In our meetings as a community, we encouraged the hope in one another. We prayed together, ate together, and shared communion. I remember sharing one message with the group from Hebrews 11 about Abraham. Joshua and James continued to willingly live without a permanent home, but we all continued to look forward to when a house would be a reality.
At the same time, Kate and I also gladly began reconnecting with friends we'd been making in the social action scene. In Edmonton, September means lots of preparation for the Anarchist Book Fair, and we were in like Flynn. Though most of the anarchist community weren't aware of how desperate our living situation was, we were very happy to begin our new Edmonton life getting to know them and sharing our life in that world. I remember how we'd been given an apartment to live in for an entire month in October, and sharing this exciting news at the bookfair that year. I'd be working the front desk, and if a stranger would ask me how I was doing, I'd be excitedly sharing how I actually had a home for at least the next four weeks. It was a great place to start.
Here's a note I posted on Facebook during the month of October, after the Bookfair and before we had a home.
ReplyDeleteOur community and our home
Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 9:52am
To our friends,
Kate and I have been in Edmonton since the beginning of September now. We've joined a few friends already here, and since then been joined by several others from Lethbridge to Toronto. Six of us are preparing to move in to a house together to live in intentional community. We want to seek to live radical love and freedom like Jesus taught - together and towards those around us.
We're still looking for the house.
So far there are also two others participating in this community from outside the house. There are others ready to help in varying degrees.
We want to make a home of hospitality. A place always open where people can drop in and feel welcome. We'll have open dinners (often vegetarian) where we'll always have enough for people to just "drop by". We'll have a guest room ready at all times to serve a single person, or a couple, or a band. We'll have a garden. We'll have a no-strings "library".
We have friends that are putting together backpacks filled with punk stuff - things you might need if you're a young person living in a tent, and things that might fit the unique needs and likes of those choosing the lifestyle. We'll have twenty to start with. You can join us in getting these out if you'd like.
We'll have screenprinting, knitting, cooking, and we'll make zines. We are artists and musicians and lovers. We want to learn and relearn what it means to love and be loved by God, and to give love liberally without condition or agenda. We want to stand on the side of the poor and oppressed, and help alongside others walking with them to make change. We want to look like Jesus.
We've all been staying at friend's and family's houses here in Edmonton since we arrived, and we'll continue to do so until we find the house that will be our home. We're looking for a six bedroom house to rent, buy, or have given to us :) We want to find something easily accessible to street punks. This has taken longer than we thought, or wish, and it's been a very hard couple of months, but we believe this is worth everything it's costing us.
There is more than can or should be said in a Facebook note, so contact us (the top six people tagged in this note . . . if it stays in order) if you want to hear more. We'll try to keep people updated monthly or so.
Thanks for your love and support,
-Shawn