It is another quiet Sunday afternoon here in North Rome. The occasional buzz of cars flying down our street, and the gentle autumn coolness coupled with the warm rays of sunlight, makes for a perfect Sabbath of relaxation, worship, and reflection on the blessings God has showered on us this past week.

We did in fact travel to Pennsylvania, and made it back with the exact number of people with which we left. We drove out of Chattanooga around 6pm last Friday, with eight of us packed into Dustin's family's Suburban. With little room inside the vehicle to pack all our sleeping bags, food, clothes, and cookware, we piled half of our possesions in flimsy plastic garbage bags provided for us by the kind people at Cracker Barrel. This, however, proved to be more dangerous than we anticipated. This picture was taken just before we loaded up the Tahoe and left town. And before we discovered how impossible it is for transparent plastic trash bags to withstand 70 mph winds on top of a Suburban.

Arriving at a Philadelphia supermarket to pick up sturdier trash bags just as the sun was beginning to show on the horizon, we were energized with a newly awakened excitement for the weekend to come. And so we set into the city.

After some coffee at a local semi-open air market consisting of fresh meats, fish, cheese, coffee, cheese steaks, jellies, jams, and refreshments of all types, we let the caffiene pick up where the sunrise left off, and made our way down the streets of historic Philadelphia.

We visited the Liberty Bell, stopping to read through the exhibit and reflect liberty, freedom and independence. It is great to see where this country has come from in terms of independence, women's rights, African American and Native American civil rights. It reminds us, too, of how much further we must go, how we must each constantly remember the injustices and the chains that bind so many people in this country, and how we must strive to loosen those knots and discover new and effective ways to change bring liberty to all who seek it in their daily lives.

We wandered through LOVE park, and admired beautiful fountains and the historic skyline, trying to absorb as much as we could in the few hours we had remaining in the intricate city of Philadelphia.

One cannot visit Philadelphia and not partake in an authentic cheese steak lunch. So, we obliged this rule, and refueled our tiring bodies with steak, cheese, warms bread, onions and green peppers, and a plethora of other cheese steak toppings, from the market we visited earlier.

Soon we found ourselves driving around Kensington, PA, an area just outside of Philadelphia that is often neglected, overlooked, and forgotten by its more affluent neighbours in Pennsylvania. It is a rough part of the city, evidenced by everything from the bars on every home's window to the unsettling look on the residents' faces we saw. We were there, however, not by accident, but because we were looking for the Simple Way. A community of Christ followers who live together in this part of the city. Shane Claiborne is one of the six or so who live in this community home and his story and what he and the others are doing there has been some inspiration to us in this house, and in our daily lives. To live more simple, sacrificial, loving, and service-filled lives. They were not home, but to see their street, and their home, and the neighbourhood in which they invested their lives for the past decade was priceless and truly humbling and we were all glad to be able to be there.

To stay with our attempt at having a time-tabled schedule we drove out of Kensington and headed towards Eastern University, to arrive in time to watch a preview of the documentary Ordinary Radicals. The campus was beautiful. The low hanging branches with changing leaves, the grey stone buildings, the green grass over gentle hills throughout the small rural campus provided for an awesome visual attraction to this place.
We were a little late to see the video, but were in time to hear some from the Simple Way talk. One thing that stood out most to us during that time was when one girl from the Simple Way said, "Community can be the loneliest time of your life." She went on to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer saying, "The person who's in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go." This quote echoed deep inside ourselves as we reflected on some of our own community centred ideas and visions, rather than individual relationship centred, based on love.

With Bonhoeffer's words fresh on our minds we departed Eastern University and headed towards Lancaster County - into the heart of Amish country.

We had reserved a camping spot for Saturday and Sunday night and wanted to arrive before dark to set up camp and get the fire going.

Our twelve man tent catered well to the sleeping needs of the eight of us, though some opted for a night directly under the stars - and in the freezing Pennsylvania autumn air.

A campfire-cooked breakfast of eggs scrambled in our cast iron skillet and leftover soup from the night before filled our stomachs, readying us for a Sunday in the heartland of Pennsylvania Amish. Without knowing what to expect, and having little to no previous dealings with Amish or Mennonite families within our group, we decided to find some Amish farms and attempt to meet and talk with whomever would be willing to sit with us, and help shed light on the fascinating lives of these people and their beliefs.

After the fourth house we approached, and getting no where with those we spoke with on the farms, we began to realize it is a difficult thing to break through the wall they have set up between themselves and those of non-Amish/Mennonite tradition. Most of the men we spoke to were not interested in having much conversation, and simply sent us on our way, some suggesting where we might buy some 'Amish goods', of which we were not necessarily interested.

We ate lunch at a small country eatery on the corner of some street in downtown Intercourse, PA, and enjoyed chicken sandwiches, soups, salads, and rejuvenating coffee.
Our second night at the camp ground was one of peaceful reflection, song, and discussion about the day behind us. Soup cooked over a propane burner and fresh spread peanut butter sandwiches completed our final dinner at the grounds, and the rest of the night was spent snuggly in our sleeping bags attempting to stay warm.

Monday we headed to Washington, DC - the United States capitol. Arriving around 5pm, we hurried ourselves from the upscale hotel we exploited for a much needed bathroom break, and followed a tourist map to find some monuments.

We made our way by the Capitol building, up to the national monument, and stopped into the Smithsonian Museum of American History to use the bathroom. By this time the sun had long set, and it was time for us to make our way to Herndon, VA where Laurel, one of our aunts, was expecting us for dinner at her home, and where she also offered us a place to stay for the night.

Sweet potato soufflé, cooked ham, crescent rolls, fruit salad, fresh lettuce, and warm chocolate cake and ice cream made for a perfect meal in the most hospitable of places. Dustin and Raven celebrated their one-year anniversary that day (yay, Tommeys!), so they enjoyed the evening away from the group, to have some quality husband-wife time, while we were able to send quality time visiting with our wonderful host, her daughter, and her husband.

Laurel scrambled a skillet full of eggs and ham, baked fresh blueberry muffins, and brewed hot black coffee all for us in the morning before we had to leave. Eternally grateful for her hospitality, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Georgia.
Before we reached Georgia, however, we stopped in to visit Mr. Yoder, a former Old Order Amish gentleman who now is part of a Mennonite community in Northern Tennessee. We stopped by his store a couple miles off the interstate on a recommendation by Erin Miller's father, Roy, to have a short chat with him about Mennonites and Amish and their way of life. Even though, we soon found out, he had been driving all night the previous evening, he was more than willing to talk with us, share with us, let us ask questions and look around his shop which closed five minutes before we arrived.
After purchasing some ham, cheese, jellies, and jerky, thanking the kind man for his time, help, hospitality and love, we loaded back into our Tahoe and made the final push into Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then on southward back to Rome. We will have to talk more about our overall impressions of the trip next time. But it was definitely a blessing to be a part of.

Yes, the trip was one of the blessings God has allowed us to enjoy in His presence, but we also were blessed to harvest some of our first vegetables this week. Radishes and spinach!

Our radishes are sprouting and producing healthy bright read roots which we chopped up this week with fresh spinach plucked from our two rows of spinach, also producing healthy, dark green leaves, delicious with tomato-basil vinaigrette dressing and a handful of radishes.

Soon we will have green onions, carrots, and hopefully the cabbage will continue to grow strong and yield us salad worthy leaves of which we can enjoy this winter.

Another blessing this week was our community cookout we organized in our front yard Saturday afternoon. The previous week a few of us went into the neighbourhood from house to house meeting families and children and inviting them to come enjoy hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken and chips. The reception of this invitation was very positive and we were able to meet so many people we had not earlier known.

Saturday evening around 5:30 a trickle of neighbours began streaming down the street and up to our front yard. With hamburgers on the grill and lemonade chilled in our five gallon cooler, we began welcoming neighbours young and old to our home. Close to twenty children showed up, and that many or more adults also came by to eat, drink, and fellowship with one another.

We were not too sure how the cookout would turn out, but it could not have gone better. We even were able to bring plates of food to a couple of elderly in the neighbourhood who could not leave their homes.
We are slowly getting to know more and more of the people with whom we live in this neighbourhood, and it is exciting. We now have growing relationships with individuals for whom we can continue to pray, as we begin to discover the things they need prayer for most. We are beginning to see more of what the needs of the neighbourhood are and where we might be able to do some small part to ease someone's burden.

It is still difficult to live together and not be doing specific things that can be measured by worldly standards. We have no statistic sheet of goals and accomplishments hanging in our dining room to rate our success. We have no huge plans, but only to love God and people hugely, and let God do big things through that love. And that is sometimes difficult for our human minds to understand. We want results. We want evidence. We want immediate tangible impact. But we must understand that God does not always work that way.
I began this on Sunday afternoon, I am closing on Thursday. Oops.
Thank you so much for being a part of us by reading and praying. God bless you.