praise be to our God!

God is good & faithful all the time. today was an example of our God answering a cry for help. he is always good to come & rescue us from the pits of sin that we so willingly sometimes have allowed ourselves to be trapped in. praise the lord our God saves. he's intentional about the rescue not just once but he's in it for the long haul. praise be to our God!

oh. fyi: here is my address here in minneapolis!
it would bring me much joy if i received mail. :)

Becca Lewis
2641 13th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407


grace & peace.

peace be with you.

so. i saw mewithoutyou play lovely tunes in st. paul last night.
after they played a few songs, aaron paused to say something so simple, but yet it was huge.
he said, "in some religious circles people greet each other by saying 'peace be with you' & the other responds 'as well as to you' [i think this is the response :)] and i just think that we should do that right now because it is good." man! so much joy filled my heart when i was able to wish blessings of peace upon other people. there is so much depth to that simple statement. i pray that the peace of Christ can fill me & having others wish that upon my life is encouraging.

so, i thank God for being so huge last night. he brought so much peace into my life. i pray that i can be a peacemaker amongst the community where i am at. i pray that i can let the lord continue to use me in a humble manner here in minneapolis.

pray that i can be obedient to his voice. continue to pray for the somali people. our team's unity and relationships. pray that i can love people well just like jesus. we need him. we cannot live this life without his daily intercession in our lives. pray that my prayer life would grow tremendously. i need to remember that prayer changes things. me.. little small being called becca.. cant change hearts. pray that ill rest in God's faithfulness. pray that ill fight for my neighbors. pray that ill see God at work here. pray that when i see.. ill be faithful to love & serve well.

grace & peace to you all.

out of isolation & into community.

so.. it is day 5. a glorious day 5 it was. i can describe it in one amazing word.. COMMUNITY. :)
just saying this word.. brings so much joy into my life. what does community even mean? is it just a neighborhood of houses? a racial group? is it exclusive?

what i do know is that it brings LIFE. JOY. & much ENCOURAGEMENT! today.. we visited a church in north minneapolis & the message was on community. "out of isolation & into community". what a glorious conversation. it was so encouraging to see the body of Christ fighting to reconcile God's people back to Christ himself. whether that be racially or culturally. it is necessary & we as the body of Christ should be fighting for these things. also, our lives should be inviting people into a holy priesthood, a lifestyle where community not only with the Father is present but with people too. our culture screams that we must be an individual & that it is all about us & our needs. we must fight to get to the top. when in reality, we are called to know Christ & Him crucified & that alone. it's interesting see the effect of our own selfish individualism. it just brings pride & loneliness. why live in such a way when another life is offered to us? jesus lived & breathed community. look at his life. it shouts.. "we need each other". even Jesus had a group of likeminded people living life with him. i feel as if the "church" has been sucked into this unhealthy individualistic mindset. we've started preaching a gospel of "me" rather than a gospel of community. some try to "save" people out of hell & that alone. God is in it for the lifelong rescue not just the one time out of hell & into heaven kind of deal. God brings us out of the isolated pit into a transformational community. man.. there is so much joy in that! i know i want to be a part of God doing that here in minneapolis. i pray i would be available to that.

along with a radical message of truth this morning, i was able to spend a restful day with the lord through reading & journaling. then, my new community of people here went to the "hidden lake", which wasnt so hidden. this turned to be such a restful time & we found a mudpit! haha. a mudpit + out of control kids = me getting thrown in by a 10 year old & getting pegged in the face/head several times with mud balls. nevertheless it was a joyous occasion. after lake time, we went & grilled out with more new awesome people. it just shouted geniune community. i really am enjoying my life here thus far.

continue to pray that i'll find much joy admist the unknown. tomorrow i start at the somali education center. pray that God will continue to soften their hearts. & pray that i can love them with a fierce love like jesus.

grace & peace.

tour de minnehaha.

so. minneapolis is totally different than nashville or memphis. people are wise. they save money on gas by biking everywhere. since i flew on an airplane here, i dont have a car. so, i am biking everywhere i go. & i love it! my life has totally changed just by one ride on my ol'bike. it is an orange mountain bike of sorts. with mountain bike road tires or something. i dunno.. it's legit to say the least. yesterday we did a bike tour around the entire city. so, i rode my bike for 6 hours or so. we went by the lake, visited the central huge library, as well as ate at this really neat polish place. it was such a great morning/afternoon. sooo good. we also trekked to target & blockbuster & my new favorite coffee place.. the spyhouse. i think that will be my getaway for the summer. but now i should probably introduce the person of the blog...

friends meet RASCAL. rascal.. my friends.

he has been a loyal friend thus far. i love him.

also. we took some glamour shots by the river yesterday.




i guess we'll see where else he takes me this summer.
pray that he wont be stolen in this city.. it's real life folks. real life & people like attractive bikes - rascal being the perfect example. so yea.. id cry if he was gone.

grace & peace.

my eyes can't see

it is officially day 3 of living in minneapolis. the past few days have been very overwhelming. it has been definitely a transition. there hasnt been much normalcy, but i understand that comes with a new city, new people, and a new neighborhood. i am living in a place of poverty where prostitution, drugs, and gangs can be seen daily. But, there are also less obvious things. when i first arrived on wednesday, i was so surprised to see where we were living. the neighborhood really doesnt look that impoverished.

here is our house.

the olson's house. aka the greatest family ever.
but. walking up to a house like this was surprising. i totally expected more "ghetto" conditions. this neighborhood is considered "innercity", but to my eyes all i could see was beauty. but, in that beauty i knew there must be something deeper going on. as i talked with a member of our team, they were explaining the strict guidlines the city of minneapolis puts on home owners. if your yard is trashy or house looks rundown, the city will smack lots of expensive fines on you. so, most home owners keep their houses & yards kept. this seemed so eccentric to me. i am used to the "innercities" of nashville, memphis, st. louis, mobile, and jacksonville. i have served in all of these cities and have lived in two. in all of these cities, you can "see" the poverty from just standing in the middle of the street. the poverty is shouting at you. but, in my neighborhood, the poverty cannot be seen by just looking at the physical aspects of it. you must dig deeper and begin to get to know the people inside these houses to truly see the poverty that my neighborhood is engulfed in. as i have begun to build relationships with some of my neighbors, i am beginning to see the deeper needs that these people have. instead of the physical poverty that im used to seeing, there is a poverty of the spirit, a spiritual poverty. these people are longing for something more to hope in. in the south, jesus is shouted at the corner of every street. but, in minneapolis jesus isnt as "popular", which is probably a good thing. maybe, it is best that these people arent overwhelmed with thoughts of chrisitianity or those "chrisitians" shouting at the corner for people to repent. maybe it allows people to have more of a geniune faith. not to say that christ's name doesnt need to be known. we are called to go and speak of God's truth. but, there is such a lack of geniune commitment to the person of christ. there isnt a fleshing out of the gospel of christ. people dont truly follow christ. there is alot of talk and claiming the label of christian. but how many people do you know that are geniunly seeking to follow their jesus in every aspect of their life. not many, im sure. but. of course God is gracious. we are human and we arent able to reach perfection. but, we are called to have a geniune faith full of grace. i desire this kind of life. hopefully, you do too.

that is one big thing the lord is beginning to show me. so im still praying that he'll give me eyes to see. i feel as if that is going to be my theme for the summer. so pray that ill begin to see the needs of the people. pray that ill build geniune relationships with my neighbors. pray for the somali refugee children i will be tutoring starting monday. i went to the center today for orientation. 100% of these children are muslim. so there is much spiritual warfare there. pray that i can love them well and just be jesus to them.

i think this is all for tonight. oh.. here are a few pictures from yesterday's activities picking strawberries at a neighborhood garden, as well as going to the mexican market to eat, and the sunset on the river.

grace & peace.


the garden..

my bowl of strawberries!

tire swing fun!

my housemate/teammate: we love each other. :)

the mexican market for dinner.

beautiful minneapolis at sunset.

embarking on a great adventure.

I have just embarked on an exciting adventure in the philips neighborhood of minneapolis, minnesota. God has called me to serve in the inner city amongst the people of phillips this summer. i am truly humbled that God would give me such an endeavor to embark on. it has been such a priviledge to be a part of what God is doing here. i am serving with a christian order called "innerCHANGE" as an intern. innerCHANGE is group of people living out the gospel of christ incarnationally among the poor and marginalized. they can be seen as being missionary, contemplative, and prophetic. they focus on evangelism, community mobilization, church mobilization, and ministry among the profoundly broken. it is a very organic group of people who are living their lives amongst the poor for christ's sake.

this past sunday, i flew into san francisco for orientation. i learned more about the service i'll be doing this summer in minneapolis. i can truly say that it was such a refreshing time being with a group of people who are living out values that i try to live by and see as important. one of my favorite things about innerCHANGE is the real & geniune nature of the way they do ministry. it isnt about "saving" people, but it about the relationships with the people. there is an investment in people's lives, specifically the poor. they see the opportunity to do ministry as "a priviledge", which was a humbling way to see it. we as christians boast in our works for the lord way too often. we go into places to bring jesus there. why are we so naive to think that God isn't already there? also,the people we minister to are humans, which we so often see as a project. we live to check off the box next to their name on our christian to do list. ministry is about relationships with people. it is a life investment, not a two week trip to another city or country. i pray i can live my life incarnationally loving people with a fierce passion from the lord.

also, san francisco is a very neat city. i felt so comfortable and at home there. the people were friendly and organic. there was something about that city that makes me long to be there. the first day, lindsay [my teammate] and i went on our first adventure to this hill that overlooks the city. of course, we decided to climb steep hills where a path didnt exist. but we made it to the top of the hill and looked out onto the city of san francisco. it was so beautiful and i was humbled to stand so high above the city. also, for the past three mornings, we woke up early to explore the city before the orientation activities started. we found a great coffee shop called "philz coffee". i highly reccommend it!

i am so thankful for my teammate, lindsay. she has been such a blessing from the lord already! she is so faithful in internalizing the word of God. i pray i can be as knowledgeable of the word as she is. she is such a beautiful picture of our God. i am so thankful for her friendship. we have made such great memories already. i look forward to see how God uses both of us in each other's lives this summer. pray we will be unified and an encouragement to each other.

But, the entire time i was in san fran, God just showed me new pictures of his beauty. on the second day, we embarked on a prayer walk throughout the city. during that time, God just shouted some profound truth my way. just an fyi: san francisco homes are right by the street. every home has a a steep set of concrete stairs with no grass or yard. there was concrete, gates surrounding the stairs, and often more gray concrete. before the prayer walk, our facilitator quoted oswald chambers saying, "eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare". So, we were challenged to not just look at the streets we were walking on, but ask the lord to give us eyes to see the underlying [less obvious] needs of the city. that quote just resonated into my soul and God gave me eyes to see a new kind of beauty and symbol of God's work in san francisco. often we look at all the obvious problems in a community and are blinded to see the ways God is moving. it is easy to dwell on the sufferings of this life, but it is more difficult to hold on to God's truth, which is our only hope. so, as i walked, God's flowers along the street kept grabbing my attention. i noticed that every house had a flower pot in their concrete yard with beautiful flowers just thriving. so, despite all the dirt and ashe, God's beauty was still radiating brightly. despite the concrete, those flowers were beautiful and brought life to the streets of san francisco. this symbol of God's beauty amongst the uglyness reminded me that God is already moving and working in minneapolis. i just needed to ask the lord to show me how he is already working. there are so many problems in this world, but there is hope! God is working. he is moving and changing lives amongst those living in poverty. we must be careful to not dwell on the uglyness, but hold on to God's beauty. i pray i can see God's beauty in minneapolis despite the obvious poverty that is around me.

today, i was able to experience my first day of that beauty i was waiting to see in minneapolis. we flew in early this wednesday morning, slept till noon, then met the rest of our team. we were able to meet a bunch of people today in the neighborhood, as well as those involved in the house church that is connected with the team. i am excited to see the beauty that will emerge from the people here.

pray that my eyes will be able to truly see the needs of the people. i long to be used here. pray that i'll be humbled daily. pray that lindsay & i will be unified in christ. pray that my pride will cease. pray that i will be an encourager to those around me. pray that ill be light.

grace & peace.