North Side Neighbors

Laura and I are finally moved into our apartment! We are now in the process of unpacking ,organizing and reorganizing and reorganizing. Within the first few days of living on the North Side we had a few very interesting observations: Trash trucks sometimes operate very loudly at 3:00 in the morning, one way streets are merely suggested, and people (for the most part) on the North Side stop and say, "Hi." The last observation interests me quite a bit. Already Laura and I have interacted more with our neighbors in our building than we did our entire time at our previous apartment. Lola, a little old black lady on the floor below us, showed us how to correctly carry a desk up the stairs, Fransisco, the nice Hispanic man who lives above us, has a bad back, and the lady who lives beside us stopped us when we were moving in and apologized for her boyfriends music. It's pretty amazing to think that even though we have moved into a high crime area with boarded up buildings all around that people on the North Side are more interested in saying "Hi" then the "nice family" borough of Pittsburgh. Another perk of living on the North Side, I now live close enough to walk to Urban Impact. In the short ten minute walk I get to pass by several different bus stops and corners where people congregate. At each of these places it's nice to stop and visit; I hope to be able to use even these short moments to build relationships.

At Urban Impact things are shaping up really well for the fall. The choir continues to grow and the Performing Arts Academy, which I am now in charge of administrating, has more students pre-registered than ever before and we still have a month left. The day after we hung posters around the North Side a mother came into our office and started crying. She had seen a poster in the local barber shop and wanted to get her kids involved but couldn't pick them up after class. At this time Meghan, our dance instructor, simply said she could take her children home after class and the mother broke down in tears and made Meghan give her a hug. The Performing Arts Academy starts October 1st.

Prayer Requests:

• For volunteers for the PAA
• Final planning for the PAA
• Nate, Shiniqua, Shiquala, Breann, Valarie and Alicia as they start college and associates school
• As we look for a new staff member to fill in for Principal Rick
• To finish strong with support raising

Thank you all for your prayers and come and visit anytime in Pittsburgh.

August Catch-up

The summer programs have all finished, and now August gives us a chance to get caught up and prepared for the long winter months ahead. Before I get to busy planning and envisioning upcoming programs I thought it would be nice to reflect on the busy summer. So here is a short video with pictures of Tuesday Nights, Summer Day Camp, and other summer events.

Prayer Requests:

• My Grandma
• Fall Choir Retreat
• Planning for the Performing Arts Academy
• Students returning to school and graduated students going into the workforce and college
• Transition time from Summer to Fall program

Praise Report

• Support Trip Across America went very well and it was a huge blessing to see many friend and family and tell them about Urban Impact and the North Side
• Moving onto the North Side next week!

On the way, by the way.

Laura and I are now a little over half way through our Support Raising Trip Across America. It has been quite a journey getting to see old friends and family and let them know all the amazing things that are going on at Urban Impact. Thus far we have stayed in four different cities, five different beds, and Laura got to play with one dog, one cat, and a stuffed cat. The last part of our trip will take us briefly into Wisconsin before ending our journey in Kansas City and taking the very long 14 hour trip back to the 'burgh.

Speaking of getting back to Pittsburgh praise is due. Laura and I recently found an apartment on the North Side! It is very close to Urban Impact and to where many of our kids and students live. There are many great things already about this apartment but one of the biggest blessings we found came from a misquote in the rent. The landlord's sister quoted us a price that was a less than what the landlord was asking, but when we called the landlord said he would stick by the quoted price! I felt that God had given us a Monopoly card that said, "Bank error in your favor: Pay $100 less in rent." So... That is pretty amazing. Thank you all who were praying for our housing.

Prayer Requests:

• God would continue to guide us and give us safe travels.
• That we could be able to quickly get back into the swing of things in Pittsburgh.
• Transition time between Summer and Fall programs.
• One of our students trying to learn how to be a good father.

So much has been happening that it's hard to keep up with it all

Urban Impact's summer programs are now in full swing and the days and weeks seem to go by faster and faster. This means to things: We're keeping busy and having fun. For me this summer has been composed of a smattering of programs. I have been teaching two drama classes one for "Tuesday Nights" (which rocks) and one for the Summer Day Camp as well as starting a young men's discipleship group and coaching a Leadership team called the Servant Team. These have all been great and through them I have been building deeper and deeper relationships with the students on the North Side.
In the midst of all this Laura and I have also been planning a support raising trip across America (really just toward Kansas City) for the end of July. We start out in Pittsburgh and then weave across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and even a little bit of Wisconsin. We will end the trip with an eight hour jaunt to Kansas City to meet the Anderson clan for rip roarin' fun at the Anderson Reunion. We are very excited to see many friends and family members and hope that this will complete a large chunk of support raising.
Speaking of family and friends Laura and I were very blessed by the chance to go to Camp-of-the-Woods with the whole pine cone aka Brautigam family. (For the reason why they are called the pine cone family you would have to ask my niece, but I don't know if you would get a straight answer out of her.) Camp allowed for all things summer related. We had s'mores, played sand volleyball, ate ice cream, and hung out with family. This trip was a huge blessing to Laura and I, not only to see family but also to slow down a little bit and gear up for the second half of summer.
The second half of the summer and the second half of the summer Blog should include highlights of "Tuesday Nights" and Summer Day Camp. With clips from the student written story of Shadaracha and Meshaka and how they stand up to Queen Nebuchanesia and won't worship boys, and the reason why "Tuesday Nights" rock! All of these great stories and more will arrive in the weeks and months to come.

Prayer Requests:

• Support Raising Trip Across America
• One of my students who is grieving the loss of his sister who was hit by a car just weeks after his girlfriend committed suicide
• My Grandma
• Laura and I finding a place to live on the North Side
• Summer Day Camp and Tuesday Nights

The Adventures of Steely McBeam

If you don't know Steely McBeam is the mascot for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you don't know the Pittsburgh Steelers you have probably been living under a rock for several years or in Cleveland and choose not to give them a second thought. But this blog is a place to set all partisanship and rivalries aside and play ball for kids.

Although I often tell stories about the Performing Arts Academy I think it is important to recognize the breadth of Urban Impact and all of its programs. As some of you may know Urban Impact primarily started out as a youth Basketball outreach and soon encompassed all major sports. From this growth a relationship with the Steelers was forged and a football clinic was born. Over the years the football clinic has grown and evolved into something really quite spectacular. A task force of Urban Impact-ites with the help of a local high school football team transform Oliver high school's field into a magnificent a NFL training camp. (Of course as the theatre guy they asked me to set up the stage and help put table skirts on the community group tables. Sadly the putting on the table skirts proved to be quite difficult for Principal Rick and me.)

After all the set up and hot dogs and hamburgers were thrown on the grill, the fun really began. Soon kids of all ages flooded the registration booths and poured into the stadium playing warm up games ranging from Steelers flash card trivia to push up competitions. This was all fine and dandy but what was really great was the emergence of none other than Steely McBeam. This was great for me because I was appointed as Steely's bodyguard and right hand man. I also got to be his interpreter because despite having a rather large mouth Steely is mute. For the most part this required me to walk along side him saying, in an excited and surfer-esque tone, "Hey everybody look it's Steely McBeam! Show Steely some Steeler love." And then loads of kids would mob him while he high fived them and beat them off with his foam steel beam. The latter sometimes required my assistance. Then Steely McBeam almost passed out, so we stopped challenging kids to push up competitions and he guzzled down three water bottle in a matter of seconds. Apparently you sweat a whole lot when you are in 80 degree weather wrapped in layers of black and gold padding.

All of this was tons and tons of fun. The little kids ran the drills laughing while some of the older students ran the drills with intensity that matched the Steelers players running along side them. With all of this in mind the most amazing part came at the end of the night. Several of the Steelers stepped up on the stage and told hundreds of north side kids how despite winning several Super Bowls the biggest moment in their lives came when they accepted Christ into their hearts. How despite all of their strength and all their money they still need help and God is the only one who answers and fill their hearts.

I may be a Cleveland fan, but I thank God for those Steelers.... and Steely McBeam.

Prayer and Praise Requests:

• For "Tuesday Nights", our summer youth program will start June 16th
• Urban Impact Summer Day Camp starts this week
• Please pray for our graduating kids
• That I will not spread myself to thin
• My Grandma
• Support Raising

Thank you all. It means a lot to me.

Monster Foot

This post is not a normal post, but my wife has bugged me to write about it. I will write about the football clinic with the Steelers and my andventures with Steely McBeam soon.

This is the story of Monster Foot

It all started a little over two years ago. It was during finals week at the end of my junior year of college and some of my friends and I went on a late night hike around the reservoir. It was a beautiful night for a hike... or so we thought.

I walked along with my friends laughing and reminiscing about the year that had seemingly flown by faster than the year before. As the night wore on we decided to return back to school and get a few hours of sleep before our final finals. On our way back we came across a large swampy mud puddle with a thin board laying across the murky mess. One by one we stepped onto and off the board. Everyone seemed to to this with relative ease, but when I stepped onto the board my foot became stuck. I lifted my foot and the board rose into the air. The board was nailed to my foot. This is not a figure of speech. A nail sticking out of the board was now in my foot. In more shock than pain I placed my other foot firmly on the board and pried the nailed foot off the board. I immediately went to the ER and they performed an x-ray, gave me a tetanus shot and assured me my foot patched up nicely. But little did they know a monster was born beneath my skin.

Now fast forward eighteen months. In this time I married and moved to Pittsburgh; all the while a monster slowly grew in my foot. Starting out I barely even noticed the little lump on the bottom of my fat foot. It never impeded my walking, but if I poked at it I could feel a little hard speck under the skin. Thinking it may be a wart I decided to attack the little guy with some good ol' Dr. Scholl's. This battle went on for several weeks each day taking off a little more skin, but each day the little speck remained buried in my foot. The little speck persisted until I ran out of Dr. Scholl's. Getting fed up with the whole process, I stopped attacking my foot and hoped the speck would remain just a speck and leave it at that. But I was sorely mistaken.

The speck did not remain speck but soon grew, slowly taking ground and ravaging my foot. What was once my foot now became the lair of a monster which bulged under my skin. It soon felt like an alien trying to rip through my flesh. I could only imagine the devastating havoc caused if I did not redouble my efforts and attack it once again. With my imagination firing off images of my foot slowly devouring the rest of my body, I went and bought another box of Dr. Scholl's, Compound W, and Duct tape. Over the next couple of week I strategically advanced on the monster peeling off multiple layers of skin at time. Through many a sweat and tears I finally came upon the eye of the monster. Now when I looked at the bottom of my foot my enemy looked back at me. I saw a little white ball peeking out at me surrounded by a trench of skin, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. I continued the good fight and the eye on my foot got bigger and bigger. Soon it began to move around in my foot like the little track ball on a blackberry. With this development I knew it was now or never. My wife now came along side me. As I pushed down on the skin built up around the monster my wife pulled at it with a pair of tweezers. Grinding my teeth and turning my head away my wife gave one mighty tweeze and out popped the monster (and a little blood). The monster in my foot was no more. A little white, rubbery ball a centimeter in diameter is now dead.

Epilogue
My foot now feels great. It feels like new and the crater left by the monster has filled in nicely thanks to some off brand Neosporin.

Planning, blah, blah, blah

I started to write a post last week but soon realized it was not necessarily the most interesting or exciting. It kind of went something like this:

Planning, planning, blah, blah, blah, planning, blah, blah, blah...

I am still in the planning process, but I wanted to update everyone with whats been going on here in Pittsburgh. It has been a strange time of ups an downs. While my life has remained rather steady in the past few weeks, family, friends, and some of our Urban Impact kids' lives have been rocked. Rocked by great things like my little niece and the sudden barrage of lots of little nephews (all of which I am trying to instill a love of Star Wars), but also rocked by many unexpected health problems and deaths. All the while I have been an onlooker, while crying at times, but really spending a lot of time listening and mulling over what's happening. Although this is a time where I have seen the fragility of life I have even more overwhelmingly seen the strength of God in those who know and trust in him...

In this spot I tried to write something really "deep", but it sounded really cheesy. So this is the bottom line: knowing that I will see someone again in heaven, after death, comforts me. Yes, I still grieve and probably cry more than most other men, but I know what God has promised to be true. This is why I am here.

God's promises make all the planning blah, blah worth it.

Prayer Request:

• Summer Programs: Tuesday Nights and Young Men's Bible study!
• Summer Concert at my College Church
• My Grandma
• North Side Neighborhood Renewal Project (The Urban Impact Drama Team will be Performing Thursday Night)

Thank you,

eric