![\"FromBostonToLA\"](\"https:\/\/oshetablogs.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/03\/frombostontola.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019re finally here! We made it #FromBostontoLA.\u00a0 It took us eleven days to visit nine cities and deliver three love bombs.\u00a0 Phew! It\u2019s a month later and I still can\u2019t believe we did it.<\/p>\n
When TC was offered the associate pastor position at New City Church of Los Angeles, we planned this trip with two goals in mind:<\/p>\n
1: Have a much family time, making as many as possible
\nand
\n2: To do as much good for other as possible.<\/p>\n
Initially, we were going to do a service project in every city, but when planning and coordinating became an issue, I dropped the crazy down a notch and decided to meet up with three people\/organizations doing good for their cities.<\/p>\n
When I started this blog, \u201cShalom in the City\u201d, I wanted to create a space where we can explore intentionally living lives that reflect the love of Jesus to the needy or oppressed in our cities, even if we don\u2019t live in the urban core.\u00a0 I think so many of us have hearts to address the brokenness in our communities but have no idea where to start or we\u2019re paralyzed by unnecessary expectations that tells us in order to authentically care about issues of injustice in our cities we have to move there or have a platform or be called specifically to be urban missionaries.\u00a0 Sure, there was a time my husband and I were urban missionaries and,\u00a0 for a season, urban church planters, but that\u2019s not my life now.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019m a mama in the suburbs with a heart for the poor both in my city and globally and sometimes it\u2019s hard to stay on mission.\u00a0 Sometimes, I wish I could go back to those early days of urban ministry where we moved right into the neighborhood.\u00a0 It was so easy to show the love of Jesus to my drug-addicted neighbor when she was literally right next door.\u00a0 Now, my biggest temptation is to skip with the twenty minutes drive it takes to get into LA to go to a birthday party for homeless kids- the same way I struggled with driving across the Charles river from my Cambridge townhouse to go worship every Sunday at an urban church plant.<\/p>\n
But, since I can\u2019t shake God\u2019s own admission that he cares about our great cities, I have to\u00a0 keep wrestling with how to do both- live in the suburbs (because city-dwelling is impractical for us in this season) and practice loving our closet major city (n this case, Los Angeles,) well.<\/p>\n
Seeking the shalom- God\u2019s dream of wholeness, harmony, and prosperity- for our cities when we\u2019re not living in their cores is hard- not impossible-but hard and definitely requires intentionality.\u00a0 This intentional living isn\u2019t easy and I want this space to be where we come together to cheer each other on to love mercy, walk humbly and seek justice!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this intentionality to seek the peace of the city that we wanted to model for our kids with our road trip with a purpose.
\nIn our ten plus years of doing urban ministry, TC and I noticed that there are five major cries or needs of the city.<\/p>\n
The city cries out because:
\n1: Poverty
\n2: Mass Incarceration
\n3: Disease
\n4: Loneliness
\n5: Violence<\/p>\n
All seek to undermine God\u2019s wholeness for her residents.
\nSo. in our love bombs we wanted to encourage those who are work to comfort those in the city broken by one of these five injustices.\u00a0 And in part, we did just that.\u00a0 But three very different posts that I expected to write for the #FromBostontoLA series rose out of those eleven days on the road.\u00a0\u00a0 I really wanted to produce three great posts on seeking the shalom of the cities along out way that would inspire you to seek the shalom of your closest city.\u00a0 I wanted to help you identify the specific cries of the city that stirs your heart and give you resources to engage thoughtfully.\u00a0 But, God had other plans in mind. In fact, at every love bomb delivery He showed me something new about motherhood and raising compassionate kids that I\u2019m so excited to share with you. These lessons have given me grace and a new perspective on missional motherhood.<\/p>\n
Someday, I hope to write a series of posts on the five cries of the city, but in this series of posts, I\u2019m going to show you the changes of heart, that, I as a mother,\u00a0 had on the road.<\/p>\n
When my son was vomiting for hours from food sickness on the way to delivering our first love bomb and I just wanted to give up the whole love bomb mission, I learned to lean into my weakness because God\u2019s grace is sufficient and that I could choose to not grow weary in doing good.<\/strong><\/p>\n When the kids and I toured a non-profit that provides clean needles to women addicted to drugs in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV, I learned that loving the broken right where they are is completely scandalous and completely Christ-like.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we visited a foster mama in a gorgeous suburban neighborhood and I felt wholly inadequate and a little bit jealous of her amazing life, I learned that Christ\u2019s power rests on the humble, that we run the race we\u2019re in, and I was reminded (again) that geography does not indicate fidelity<\/a>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Starting Monday, I\u2019m going to tell you about each love bomb and the \u201caha\u201d moments God dropped on me as we delivered gifts to three incredible Shalom practitioners.<\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ll come back to \u201cShalom in the City\u201d on Monday or follow the blog by putting your email in the field to the right.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to share more of my journey with you, but I\u2019ve got to go check on the kids in the pool.\u00a0 It\u2019s 90 degrees in LA today, a far cry from the rainy 49 degrees back in my beloved Boston. And I\u2019ve got the get the kids ready to go to a birthday party at Worthy of Love.<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s our first and I\u2019m so, so, so excited1<\/p>\n