Safe Arrival in St.Louis

I just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived in St. Louis at 7pm tonight. We ate a home cooked meal (yum) and are going to bed soon. Thanks to everyone who came over yesterday to load and clean - we couldn't have done it without you. We are planning to leave in the morning for Kansas City and hope to arrive around noon.

A Fun Week With Good Friends!

Friday night Andrew, Christina, Jim, Tim & I went to the Starlight Six Drive-in to see "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." We picked up Chinese food from the Rice Box and brought some chairs and a blanket. We had so much fun!


Friday was my last day of work at the League - I am officially unemployed. I have been so lucky to have a job that I love and work with one of my best friends. The League in Georgia is doing great things and I am so excited to hear about what they do next. If you still live in Georgia, you should join (it's not just for women) - click here.

Thursday night we went to the Brick Store Pub in Decatur with Kim and Carey and some of her friends from work. After that we went to see our friends John and Steve's new condo - it was beautiful! Then they graciously treated us to dinner at Cowtippers. Wow, have we had some good food this week.



Then on Wednesday night we went to dinner with Cindi & David at Pozole in the Virginia-Highlands. It was a delicious dinner and dessert! I would definitely recommend checking it out. It started raining really hard in the middle of dinner and we got pretty wet on the patio - it was really fun. We were sad to say goodbye but look forward to Cindi and David coming to visit.

Dessert - yummy!

Tuesday, we played trivia one last time with Allison & Wes at Trackside Tavern. Even though we were 1 point away from 3rd (with a bunch of other teams), we had fun as always. We got to see ultrasound pictures of the Little Baby - we can't wait until he or she is born!

Moving Schedule

We just wanted to update everyone on the moving schedule - feel free to stop by!

Monday, July 30th - Tim's dad flies to Atlanta, pick up U-Haul truck, packing and cleaning afternoon and evening

Tuesday, July 31st - Leave Atlanta and drive to St. Louis (8 hours)

Wednesday, August 1st - Drive from St. Louis to KC, unload truck and unpack (arrive around 12pm)

The Parable of the Pale Rider

I watched an old movie favorite today while I was doing some packing that is in some ways a parable of what Trinity and I are doing next. Since the first time I watched Pale Rider years ago I have always been fascinated by Clint Eastwood's character in it. Eastwood plays a preacher who comes to the aide of a community of gold miners who are being harassed by an industrial miner trying to run them off their land so he can mine it. But of course he is not your average preacher. Regrettably he does resort to responding to their violence with some violence of his own (which is one of the things that makes this a parable for me), but he does try other methods of sticking up for these underdogs too. I love the main confrontation the Preacher has with the industrial miner named LaHood after he has stood up to the thugs a couple of times and has revived the spirits of the miners.

LaHood: When I heard a Parson had come to town I had an image of a pale, scrawny, Bible-thumping Easterner with a linen handkerchief and bad lungs.
Preacher: That's me.
LaHood: (Chuckles) Hardly... You know, it occurred to me it must be difficult for a man of faith to carry the message on an empty stomach, so to speak. So, I thought why not invite this devout and humble man to preach in town? Why not let the town be his parish? In fact why not build him a brand new church?
Preacher: I can see where a preacher'd be mighty tempted by an offer like that.
LaHood: Oh, indeed.
Preacher: First thing you'd know he'd be thinking about getting himself a batch of new clothes.
LaHood: Why, we'd have them tailor-made.
Preacher: Then he'd start thinking about those Sunday collections.
LaHood: Hell, in a town as rich as LaHood that preacher'd be a wealthy man.
Preacher: That's why it wouldn't work. You can't serve God and Mammon both. Mammon being money.
LaHood: (Pause) I opened this country. I made this town what it is. I brought jobs and industry. I built an empire with my own two hands, and I've never asked help of anyone. Those squatters, Reverend, are standing in the way of progress.
Preacher: Theirs or yours?

The preacher goes on to try to negotiate with LaHood to pay a fair price for their land, but only if the miners agree. They end up not agreeing to this deal anyway because they have already put so much hard work into their land, and so they have to stand up to the industrial miner and his hired hands (which turn out to not only be his usual thugs, but even a Marshall and his deputies).

I do not condone the violence in this parable, but I do believe in the message of the preacher who stands up for those oppressed by the powerful and their illusion of "progress." I also by no means intend to imply that every preacher with a "town parish" and a building has sold his soul to Mammon, but there are certainly many who have.

We are not pale, or scrawny, or Bible-thumping, and we are going to do everything we can to flee from the temptations of Mammon and the illusion of progress, even if it means carrying the message on an empty stomach.

Going Away Party - Part 2 & 3

The Spencers were so sweet to throw us a going away party on Saturday night. We had a great time with friends and even got to see some good friends that we hadn't seen in awhile. Thank you to everyone who came! Great friends and a home cooked meal - what more could we ask for.

Tim with one of our gifts - a book with pictures of Atlanta

Then on Sunday there was a lovely reception after worship. We were presented with 7 woven boxes from Bangladesh that fit inside one another and a cookbook all from Ten Thousand Villages, which is a store that guarantees that the artisans receive a fair price for their goods. We also got some gift cards which will really help us as we look for jobs in KC. Thank you to everyone for your gifts and kind words! We will miss you all more than you know.

Brooke Works Miracles!

Brooke is the name of the stylist at Sweetgrass Salon in Little Five Points who fixed my hair on Saturday. Above is a picture of my hair after Brooke performed her miracle - quite a difference. If I ever ask any of you to dye my hair, please say no!

Creme Lightener Is NOT Another Way of Saying Hair Dye

So last night I decided to lighten my hair a little, but things didn't turn out so well. I had bought some Loreal Super Blonde Creme Lightener awhile ago thinking that it was just blonde hair dye. It turns out that Creme Lightener is another word for bleach. Needless to say my hair is not the color I planned but the biggest problem is that it is VERY uneven - there is basically no blonde underneath. I was pretty upset when it first happened, but since that was 24 hours ago I have had some time to get over it. I am going to get if fixed tomorrow, so hopefully it won't look like this much longer. Thought things might be better if y'all could get a laugh out of my last hair dye disaster.

Going Away Party - Part 1

Our great friends, Andrew and Christina, hosted a Going Away Party for us last night with our small group. They made a delicious dinner of salad, green beans, rice, gravy, crispy chicken and homemade pound cake for dessert. It is sad for all of us to talk about us leaving, but we made sure to have lots of laughs as well. We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends. I'll post more pictures as soon as I get them.

Cindi and I taking one of our "do-it-yourself" photos

Yummy...homemade pound cake

Our New Apartment in KC

Click this link to view a slideshow of pictures of our new apartment. It is in the Northeast Historic District of Kansas City. We are excited about living with Tim's cousin, Michael, having Chris and Katie as our upstairs neighbors, Cherith Brook around the corner and getting to know our other neighbors.

Here is a picture of our front yard. We are going to put a table and chairs out there to be more intentional about knowing our neighbors and spending time outside.

This is our backyard which we hope to add some color to.

Welcome Gavin Isaiah Russell!

My sister, Jenna, finally had Gavin this morning (Friday) at 5:00am! He was 5lbs 13 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. My mom, my other sister Brittany, Merci, Luke and I were all in the room when he was born. It was such a neat experience for all of us. Even though I flew back to Atlanta just a few hours later and was very tired, it was definitely worth it. Here are some pictures of our new nephew, Gavin!

A Note from Tim & Trinity to DHBC

I noticed many faces missing from church yesterday that I want to share something with. I read a version of the following at the end of the worship service yesterday morning. I've changed it a bit to suit reading on here rather than hearing us say it in person, but this is basically it:

July 8, 2007

In the last year or so Trinity and I have made multiple trips back and forth to Missouri for various reasons. In addition to the regular holiday trip or two, Trinity's grandma had a serious heart attack, I performed my first wedding for my cousin, my sister graduated from college, and you all remember that my grandma died just a little more than a month ago after a couple of years of slow deterioration. Trinity is also going back for a quick trip this week to be there for the birth of her sister's third baby. As you can see, a lot has been going on in the lives of our families. Thankfully we have been able to get back to Missouri for so much of that – we are so grateful to you our church for being so flexible and understanding as we have traveled, and for helping pick up the slack from my absences on some Sundays. But all of this traveling back and forth, and the long distance relationships with our families have been hard on all of us, and after much thought we have reached the difficult decision that it is time for us to move so that we can be there for our families in ways that we cannot be here, at so far a physical distance from them. So, this morning we wanted to let you all know that our last Sunday here with you will be July 29th. My dad is going to come down to help us finish packing Monday, July 30, and we will make the drive up to Missouri on Tuesday, July 31. We will move into our new apartment in Kansas City, MO on August 1st.

We have known for quite a few months now actually that this day was coming soon, we just weren't sure about the details yet, or really about the best way to let you all know about it. As a result of not knowing how to tell people, we have not tried to keep this decision a secret, but we obviously had not made an official announcement yet either, because we didn't want to do it too early. As with so many other milestones of my time of working for this church, neither Trinity or I have ever done this before, so some people have found out at different times and in different ways in the last few months, and others might just be finding out at this very moment. This kind of decision is a hard and messy one, and I hope that everyone understands how difficult it can be to navigate through the timing of letting you all know. I am sure we have not done it perfectly, and perhaps some have wished they had found out in a different way, but I hope that any shock of finding this out will not get in the way of saying goodbye in the coming weeks.

Now, some might think I should ignore this elephant in the room, but you all know I don't do that very well, so let's just get right to it. I know some people are bound to think that we are leaving because of the controversy and accusations some folks made about me. I am not going to tell you that that painful experience has not deeply affected Trinity and me in serious ways, but please believe me when I tell you that that is not why we are leaving. We are not running away because of what happened. We had actually already decided before any of that happened that sometime this summer would be when we moved. It was on our drives back and forth to Missouri last Thanksgiving and Christmas that Trinity and I began talking about moving back there, and I told Jonathan and Gerry about our decision to do so before any of that controversy unfolded. Whatever pain any of us still have as a hold over from that experience, I want this to be clear because I don't want anyone involved in that to get the blame for our leaving. We had already made our decision, and I am deeply saddened that our last six months here unfolded in the way that they did, but none of that changed the fact that this day was coming soon for us anyway. Regardless of what happened, no one deserves to be the scapegoat for the sadness that our moving brings with it.

When friends have grown as close as we have in the last four years, moving is a very hard and sad thing no matter the circumstances, and we must keep that in perspective as we move through the coming weeks together.

We have not reached this decision easily, and there is so much that we wish to say to you friends. This church has meant so much to us these last four years, and we cannot imagine our lives without you. While we are going to gain much by moving closer to our families, you will be greatly missed, and I hope you know that for me our relationship with you all has been one of a kind. I have dreamed of being a minister since I was a small boy, and it is here that you all allowed and encouraged me to dive in and see what that dream was really about. For that I am deeply grateful and I know that I will draw from the lessons learned here for the rest of my life as a minister. God and Trinity and I are still working out the details of what that ministry is going to look like in the coming years, but my relationships and experiences here at this church have been pivotal in that process.

So many of you have also been just plain wonderful friends to Trinity and me, and we hope that we can continue to be friends for years to come. Thank you so much for these years of friendship and support and encouragement through all the good, the bad, and the in-between that we have been through together. We love you very much, and I hope that we can all commit to being creative in the way that we proceed from here. For better or for worse, probably in reality there is a little of both mixed in there, we have approached our roles here in non-traditional ways, and so we are also in non-traditional territory as we say goodbye and as we depart this place. Your guess is as good as mine as to where our relationships will go from here, but we are committed to being as creative with that future as we have been up to this point.

We are not exactly sure what we are going to do when we get to Kansas City – we only know that right now we are following our hearts and the confusing but compelling still small voice of God, which is leading us back to Missouri. When I was at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meetings a little over a week ago, a missionary couple told us about their sense of call to a new place in another part of the world – they didn't know exactly what God had for them to do there, but they knew they had to go. As they told their story I felt like they were telling our story. Along with my cousin and some old friends from college we are going to move into a poor urban neighborhood in historic northeast Kansas City and see what God has for us to do there as his hands and his feet. We will likely not get paid for that, but we have faith that we will find other ways to pay our bills. We both plan to find jobs within the community in which we will be living. Trinity plans to enter a Master of Social Work program after we have lived there for a year. I hope that we can keep you all up to date about things as we get settled and enter this new chapter in our lives. Who knows, maybe I'll even start another blog!

Sincerely,
Tim & Trinity Honse

Welcome!

As you can see, we've had this blog for a couple of years now. The original plan had been to keep our families and friends back in Missouri posted on what was going on with us in Atlanta. We didn't do such a good job of updating it frequently, but we want that to change. Now we plan for this to be a place to share with our extended family from Druid Hills Baptist Church, the Atlanta Emergent Cohort, the schools Trinity and I went to, and whoever else wants to check in on us. We will miss you all as we head to Missouri, but we hope this blog will help you stay connected to what we are finding to do in Kansas City.