Where I saw God at a block party...
prayer, action and community
Over the summer, I shifted my school year rhythm of Friday morning retreat walks in nature to our local amusement park. I found myself alone there again and again, while my kids were off with friends, and it became a place where I saw God and experienced him significantly.
I shared some of those stories here and here and here.
On the day that would be my last retreat at Kings Island for the summer, I felt a bit sad. I was looking forward to getting back to a park or a trail for my Friday morning rhythm, but I was so thankful for the experience of meeting with God in a new, unconventional place. I was sad to give it up.
It reminded me that God is everywhere, not just in nature, and I wondered about beginning a new rhythm of looking for God in other new places. Maybe sometimes on my Friday mornings or maybe sometimes in the spaces and places I happen to find myself.
Just as I did on that first morning at the amusement park, I want to regularly ask: where do I see God here?
So today, I begin. Today I’m asking: where do I see God at a block party?
On the final Sunday of summer, our family hosted a block party for our neighbors. This has been a rhythm for close to ten years now. We close out summer with a cookout, an odds versus evens kickball game, a pickleball tournament, and kids running wild down blocked off streets.
But to explain how I saw God there, I first have to explain where we started…
My husband and I moved into our house in 2009 as newlyweds. We lived there, but we didn’t really live there. By this I mean, our lives weren’t really in our neighborhood. Our relationships weren’t either. We worked and socialized and attended church outside of our community.
But once my son was born in 2012, I left my job as a kindergarten teacher to stay home with him. Suddenly, my whole life was pretty much in my house and on my street. I was bound to the house by a nap schedule.
We’d get out some, for sure. Zoo trips and meeting up with friends who had tiny children as well, but there’s a lot of time to fill in a day with a little guy and what I mostly remember is taking walks. First pushing him in a stroller, and then eventually following behind him as he toddled along picking up sticks. And I remember wishing that I knew my neighbors. That there were other moms with young kids who might want to connect in the small hours between naps.
I knew very few of my neighbors, and none with young kids like me. So at first, on those walks up and down the street or around the block, I began to pray.
I’d pray for community. I’d pray for the people living in the houses, whether I knew them by name or not. I’d pray that they would desire community. I’d pray for God’s kingdom to come on Mapleleaf Dr. as it is in heaven.
And then finally, at the end of the summer in 2015, we decided to take a step by hosting a block party. That first year we started very small, not knowing how many people would show up. We had an ice cream party. We bought a bug tub of ice cream and asked neighbors to bring toppings. About 30 people came which felt like a success.
But over the next year, almost all of them moved away.
Each time a house went up for sale, I prayed for it and the people who might move in. And as new neighbors arrived, we introduced ourselves quickly because new neighbors are usually more eager to get connected.
The next summer we tried again with a cookout. More neighbors came. Over the years we’ve added ladies and guys nights, Thirsty Thursdays in the summer (weekly front yard gatherings every Thursday night of summer), and a Halloween gathering before trick-or-treat. We know most of our neighbors and there’s always a gaggle of kids running up and down the street, knocking on doors and inviting each other to play.
That brings us back to where I saw God as this year’s block party.
As I stood on my porch and looked at the crowd of people filling my front yard, the yard next door, and across the street, I was so grateful.
Our neighborhood is a community. And not just for me. My kids are a bit older now, but I watched the moms with tiny kids gathering in front yards, laughing together, helping each other out, and my heart just swelled.
This is what I had longed for. And God had done it. It was absolutely an answered prayer.
And, it was a reminder. I think that when God plants good desires in our heart, we should pray for them, yes. It’s God who makes things grow and prayer is where that starts.
But also, God moved when we took a small step. We started in prayer, but then we took action by inviting our neighbors to eat ice cream in our front yard.
And when those neighbors moved away, we knocked on the doors of new neighbors (usually with a baked good) to welcome them to the neighborhood. And we invited again.
We see fruit because of prayer and action.
And this feels significant to me now because I have new longings in my heart. And I’ve been doing the work of prayer. But this reminder feels like an invitation to action. To small steps and letting God move within them.
And that’s where I saw God at a block party.
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