I've been meaning to do this for a long time. I really wish this had been started up sooner so I could have captured my thoughts more clearly the first month. Sometimes I wish I could keep a keyboard inside of my brain and record the small revelations I get from time to time.
Pues...here we are, finally. The Ladies House! (We still don't have an official name). At this point, I think we could possibly pull off being known as the Trekkie symbol house since we throw it up so often like no one's business.
Genevieve (Spinach/Snoopy), Mara (Caracol), Jessica (Octopus), Lauren (Meow) , Laura (she's just lovely, but i think we have to still to come up with a name for her) and in just a few days, we will soon have Katelyn joining us as well. A group of six women who would only come together to live intentionally (and stay together) because of their common love of Jesus and to love others well.
I stand in awe at the ways that God loves me. I love that He knows me so intimately and even if I never outwardly express the desires of my heart to Him through prayer, He will still know what they are (since He gave them to me! :)). It has been such a strong desire for me to live in intentional community for so long. It has been my heart's desire to live with other women who would put following Jesus above everything else in our lives. That following Jesus and knowing who how deeply loved we are by Him would come before anything else. To live with other women whom value relationships with the poor in our city, whom value justice and equality, whom value hospitality (especially to the stranger), whom value simplicity and humility, whom strive to live counter-culturally and reject what the broken world says we have to be, but instead we embrace who Jesus has called us to be.
Already we have been through some bumps in the road; we've had our conflict, our disagreements, not understanding one another. We've struggled to challenge one another to not stay in our comfort zones but instead to choose to see things in a new perspective. Jesus is the one who will keep us together. I have hope that our friendships and sisterhood will continue to flourish because of who He is. He is the One who will remind us what love really means and what it means to lay our lives down.
I do feel like an important part of our identity is our connection to the Lake House. http://lakehousetampa.blogspot.com/ They are good friends of ours, an intentional community of males (and one awesome female, Natalia, who has been a good friend of mine for years now and she is married to one of the guys who helped start up the Lake House). For some time a couple of the guys from the Lake House pursued the idea of starting up a "Ladies Lake House" with several other women and myself. I am so glad they strongly encouraged me to go after this desire of my heart and gather women together. Knowing that they are here for us as our friends and brothers is so comforting. Already in the past two months they have offered wisdom, counsel and genuine friendship. I've been able to call on several of the guys when difficult situations have come up and they have been an encouragement to me. I am grateful for the ways God will redeem the messiest things in our lives when we allow Him to. For many years of my life I held a strong bitterness and resentment against males (with much validity) yet the more I have encountered Jesus, the more He has been able to liberate me from that. Being connected to the Lake House is just another sign of God's ability to redeem everything in our lives.
So, please join us. This is the beginning of the attempt of intentional community, of creating a home that welcomes the poor in our beautiful Ybor Heights neighborhood. This is our attempt to live out the toughest commandments Jesus taught in the New Testament.
All for the sake of love.
