July 2, 2008
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Meet the Neighbors -- all 26 of em ...
Saturday afternoon we went door to door in our new neighborhood to try to meet everyone on our block, and the other houses within eyesight of ours, and invite them to our July 4 BBQ. We’re hoping to sort of get to know everybody and allow any doors to be opened that can be.
Hardly anyone does this any more. (And we didn’t do it at our last house). So some of the results were kinda interesting.
At probably about half the houses, no one was home or they just didn’t come to the door.
At one house, after we knocked there was a pause, a few sounds of someone moving through the house, then a highly irritated female voice – “I’m not buying anything!” We shouted back – “we’re not selling anything … we just moved in a few houses down and just wanted to come say hi!”
A few seconds later the door opened and there was Jean. After we all greeted each other, she said, “well, I’ll have you know, I’ve lived here 5 years and no one has ever come over to just meet me and say hi. People move in, people move out, and nobody gets to know anyone any more. So this is real special.”
A few more houses down we met Fiona, a very friendly lady who just moved in with her husband a few weeks ago and are renovating.
Across the street, we met Florenzio, Maria, and Annabell, and family, many of who didn’t speak English but all were very friendly (and have been actually since we moved in, waving just about every time they see us drive by).
A f ew houses down we met Hugo and Adiranna. Hugo came by a few days later to get our phone numbers. He’s not sure he’ll be able to come to the BBQ.
In a house behind us we met two older teens named Paco and Elvia, two older teens who asked us which house we had just moved into, exactly, and then Elvia said, “I knew it! That’s the house where they put up all those Christmas lights and decorations every year! And that whole block has tons of decorations up! It’s so cool!” So already we’ve got a “grandfathered” standard to meet. J
Most everybody else was friendly. One lady seemed in kind of a hurry so we cut introductions short and just invited her to the BBQ.
Finally we met Jose. I wasn’t going to go that far, to his house, as it was arguably possibly not really within eyesight of ours, but a voice in me was telling me to go, and that he might be the man who came out and watched from across the street when our driveway was getting replaced. So, I went, and sure enough, it was him. He was very friendly and excited to meet us. Come to find out he and his family are very active in their church and “could tell we were believers” by our demeanor. And they were excited that more outgoing believers were moving into the neighborhood.
After we finished going door to door the kids had noticed the neighborhood playground so I took them to it, and by chance, Jose’s nephew, Jose, came with his daughter and neice, to play on the playground, too. He recognized me and we struck up a conversation, exchanging our stories of how God transformed our lives, and what we were up to lately. He and his wife lead the children’s ministry at their Baptist church, but feel that denomination is not very important and that it’s more important to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit. As we were all heading back to our houses he said I looked like I was a missionary and I told him that’s pretty much how I think about life. He said he was certain I had a big calling on my life. I guess I’m hearing that, too.
This whole thing is new to me. Meeting neighbors. Throwing a BBQ party. Opening up the possibility of relationships with actual neighbors. I really believe this is what God is doing and I hope I’m hearing Him right.
