get to know my neighbors

had lunch with andrea mathews today. she told me about how one of the ministries that she is involved in at hope is where students go out into the community and knock on doors and ask people how they can pray for them with no strings attached. it sounds AMAZING and totally like something i want to do (just show people how i care about them). it made me really wonder how i can start doing things like that now. and i have come to the conclusion that i really need to:

1. quit wasting time
2. finish my med school secondaries

so that i can stop making excuses (i’m just not going to pretend that new ones won’t happen…) for not getting to know people and love them :)

i am out to know my neighbours well, and make at least a few close friends, but trouble is i just dunno how …. i’ve never been the neighbourly kind, and its sounds more an ordeal, than fun..but i WANT to make it fun

I am just starting to know my neighbors, might be nice to know some of them better!

A huge snow storm has had its positives… my school has closed for 2 days, one day off work…kinda a bummer :( and i helped my neighbor shovel her driveway. It took myself, and when I couldnt push it alone, i grabbed 2 other neighbors to help out…so one event bought the 4 of us together. Small steps…

5 sets of neighbors that I feel we have really connected with. There is another family that we’ve just scratched the surface, but our boys are the same age, so THAT one will develop on its own, I’m sure. There is one more family that I need to reach out to. I see the mother here and there and I’m sure she recognizes me but there is some sort of weird vibe going on. I just need to take the bull by the horns and next time I see her I need to do a “Hey, I see you all over the place. Aren’t we neighbors??” sort of thing.

But I’m feeling good about this goal :)

...of the little boy across the street. She is a lawyer with a long commute to work, so its the husband I usually see. She is lovely and it was wonderful to get to know her.

My son is in baseball right now, and so are many of the kids in the neighborhood. I’ve been going to the games as often as my work schedule allows, and I’ve spent more time with the neighbors in the past two months than I’ve managed to spend in the last two years! Very good, easy way to combine several goods things into one.

...saw my neighbor out roundup-ing his poison ivy. Oh, boy, is there common ground. Went over to cheer him on and give him moral support. Ended up talking about all sorts of things, then took his son home with me to play with my kids so he could finish his roundup and mow the grass. Much better.

Not great but made little inroads. Called the woman next door and invited her son to come and play with my son. I also called a different neighbor and talked to the husband and hired his son to come and babysit for my little guy for a couple of hours. Next I have to actually INVITE the adults over for drinks or dinner….that’s harder….

...we’ve been here for almost 4 months and although I know a handful of them on the surface, I haven’t crossed into that level of “neighborliness”. Need to make more of an effort.