A Day in the Life 2017

**I will have a better (and more in-depth) update post on our first big event for all of you soon. I'd love, at some point, to share more of my thoughts/emotions/etc (because there are many) from the night. But for everyone who couldn't join us in person, here's the exact "speech" (which i obviously just read since I'm a far better writer than public speaker) I shared that evening. 

Truly, standing up here right now and seeing all of you is such an honoring and humbling experience for me. I am blown away by all of your support, and I am reminded that this is not about Adam and Becca, or about anything good we have done or are doing, but this is about the power of relationships and community to change the world. It's about the fact that loving your neighbor and building a diverse and generous community can truly bend the arc of the universe towards justice and peace. It's about something far bigger and more beautiful than anything we could have dreamed up on our own, and we couldn't be more grateful that all of you are along for that journey.

Most of you are probably here because you already know our story- who we are and how we got here to this neighborhood. But just in case you don't, I’m going to give you the short version.

Almost seven years ago, our family bought a house in the Adair Park neighborhood (just on the other side of the train tracks) after mentoring two extraordinary young men for a few years. Really, we just wanted to figure out a way to make more connections and build more relationships like the ones we felt like were changing us for the better every single day. We dreamed of creating a home and space in this neighborhood that would be welcoming and loving and hopeful. We probably thought, if we are honest, that we might save some folks. But the truth is that our neighbors keep saving us. The more we pour ourselves out and fall in real love with the people around us, the more our hearts inch closer to the truth and hope we so desperately need, especially when the whole world seems a little crazy.

So we moved in, and our amazing beautiful neighbors welcomed us and showed up for us. They knocked on our door for family game night, and campfires in the backyard. They asked us to start a football team and then to play basketball, to find jobs, for help going to college, and literally the only thing we ever did was say yes. We have facilitated over 35 mentoring relationships these past 6 years and I am mostly grateful for the ways those will outlast us. I think about the ripple effects of the boys we have met who now babysit our kids and are going to college, and even having kids of their own, and I am excited and amazed by the opportunity we have to play even a small role in the lives of such incredible people.

A new friend asked me a little while ago why we do what we do. The short answer is Jesus, I told her. But the long answer is that we believe in community and relationship. We believe in the youth in our neighborhood and in the power they have to make a difference in the world. Some of our mentors and neighbors and students and supporters are here, and they are the real heroes. I hope that they will recognize tonight for what it is: a celebration of how lucky we are to have all of them in our lives.

All that to say, we started Blueprint 58 seven years ago with the belief that relationships could change the world, and I am more convinced than ever that they are the only thing that will. I think entering into hard places and standing beside our neighbors across culture and race or anything else that the world tells us should divide us will be the very thing that brings the Kingdom of Heaven right here to our community. Thank you for joining us, for supporting us, and for being our neighbors and friends. We are grateful.

*Note: One thing I did decidedly not do well the evening of our event was share how you can financially support Blueprint 58. FYI: If you go to our website, you can make a donation online. Anyone who donates at least $100 in the next two weeks will get an event t-shirt in the mail, and anyone who becomes a monthly supporter will get a hoodie (we were supposed to announce this on the night of our event, but we can’t be good at everything I suppose). We will also be updating our website soon with ways you can purchase mugs, t-shirts, and sweatshirts to support the ways we are building mutually transformative relationships in our neighborhood and community.