God's Resort Home

We had moved into our 316 W. 14th St. home, amid God's Resort, in early February. College Heights Christian Church had "adopted" the area to help rehabilitate it to a healthy standard of living - the previous situation had been one of drugs, violence, and poverty level housing. But rather than giving them charity at arms length they decided the Jesus approach instead: living among and loving the people within arms length - not having them come to us in our church building, but going to them and sharing their lives. 

It was a profound experience for us. Our door was constantly open to the children who ran in and out, and at the same time we would spend hours sitting on the couches of the neighbors around us - Sharon, Shay, the Lunas, the Millers, and many more. At the same time that we had moved in, my sister Abi came and lived with Megan and Katie (who had been there nearly a year) and soon friends Eric and Peter moved to a nearby apartment. We began living as a community - most days 2 meals a day were shared with each other, cars constantly borrowed, and prayer meetings delved into twice a week. The Lord moved, and we learned how to pursue people - complete with the heartbreak and exhilaration of friendship. 

This was the home that Uriah was born to, but just as when I was born my parents moved from their home within two weeks, so Uriah would not spend more than two weeks with this as his abode. Still, the God's Resort people dubbed him their First Baby Born, and there was such a connection with the people as they would give me motherly advice or we would all look forward to meeting him together.