Yeah raddishes!

Our raddishes are almost ready to be picked! As for the other vegetables, they are trying their hardest, so hopefully soon we will harvest some carrots and spinach. Shortly after that we will have some cabbage and green onions. The broccolli,though, has yet to sprout even a modest leaf from their now dry mound of weed infested earth. No, we are not holding our breath for broccoli stew this winter.

It is almost two months since the first night all seven of us slept in the house. We have been able to maintain a daily food budget of about $1.75 per person. That includes our breakfast, lunch,and dinner. Our problem now is the power bill. During our weekly house meeting Sunday, we discussed ways to cut back on power usage. We now are more conscious than ever to unplug everyappliance when it is not inuse. We make sure to turn off all lights in every unoccupied room. Upstairs, as the eveings and mornings are becoming increasingly cooler, we continue to raise the thermostat teperature, so the air does not run constantly - and let the cooler winds blow through open windows. We are hoping that these little things will help reduce our power bill to a more afforable and manageable level, and help us be better stewards.

It is not easy living amidst seven people, and often times it is even eight or nine people as friends, relatives, significant others, are always stoping by or spending the weekend. Living in this house is different than other, maybe more common 'communal' living situations, for example, dorm apartments, because there is a sense of shared accountability and understanding of intentionality in our mission here. Compromise and selflessness are ideason which my mind must constantly reflect. And we are learning daily what it means to be intentional.
Oudvin moved in to our house on Sunday the 28th of September. He now lives on the upstairs 'male floor'. With several applications filled out and turned in to numerous businesses in Rome, we are praying for his soon employment. We are also looking and praying for a place into which he can move, so he can begin to live his life.

Please continue to pray with us as we strive to be united in one Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, which we pray will be our guide day in and day out. We need more discipline. We need more intentionality. We need more passion. More faith. Please continue to pray for our neighbours, who continue to wrestle with addiction, abuse, and loneliness.

Last week we were blessed to encounter some children from this neighbourhood. Pray with us as we seek the best way to relate to these seven to thirteen year olds, and aswe strive to provide them with a safe and loving environment where they can spend time doing homework, playing horseshoes or football, or just eating dinner. It is not always easy to change the plans or the schedule thatwe have set out for ourseleves when we hear an enthusisatic knock at the door. Pray with us as we strive for strength and wisdom and a Christ-like attitude towards these children and their lives.

In one week we will be in Pennsylvania. We have decided to take a road trip north to visit Amish country, to see the way they live as a people set apart from the wordly society that surrounds us all. We also hopeto visit Eastern University, a school where one of us is planning on attending next fall, and hopefully see the movie 'Ordinary Radicals'. Check them out at ordinaryradicals.org We will be leaving Friday afternoon once we all have finished work or school, and plan on returning Tuesday evening. Pray for us on this trip, that we will be safe, careful, full of discernment and intentionality in everythingwe do.

Again there is much to say, but little room or time, and I feel that if I do not end this here and post it, it will be another month before anything is posted. Thanks for reading, but thank you more for praying. God bless!