We're still alive! Our neighborhood is not Mr. Rogers' in the least, but they haven't gotten us yet. We're pretty fast. Don't worry about us! We're safe here and so are the kids. Well, little e. is shaping up to be quite the scrapper, so at least one of the kids is safe. There are a number of things to account for our recent lack of posts. Nothing, I'm sure that would be of interest to you--just ordinary life stuff. I have started a business with a friend of ours. We've made a whopping $15. We would mow yards to supplement, but we haven't found any yet. Heh.If you know any kids in NY, let them know they're missing out on some top-notch arts experiences.
As for our living arrangements, I had some old photos, but the place looks completely different now. We've got a storage unit we're clearing out so every time we bring something home, the whole place has to shift. I'll get some pictures of our apartment on here for you to see. Here are a couple of winter photos for you to puzzle over in the meantime:
I'm not sure what Queens residents have with cartoon characters. Maybe Garfield and Kimpossible are unrelated and we shouldn't make a case study.
Corey says it's like we're living in a puzzle. And it is! For example:
Yesterday we brought home some furniture so I had to get rid of a floor lamp and replace it with a wall sconce. The sconce-hanging process involved unplugging and rearranging 6 different devices whose cords were wedged behind large pieces of furniture. It was moderately comical. I had to unplug everything we have and move every piece of large furniture in our house in order to hang a lamp. (I told you you wouldn't be interested to hear what we've been up to. Heh.)
For those of you who were wondering what we've been up to with The Gallery, here's the rundown:
-Corey has been working to fine-tune membership stuff. That includes record-keeping, letter sending, and all that goes along with that. The things that, if you've been in a church that's had a hundred years to fine-tune, you probably haven't thought much about. We hadn't.
-I have been working with the Gallery mommas to get a story time running. It ultimately geared toward helping us get to know the families in our area. I'll also be stepping in to a more hands-on role in our children's ministry.
-Corey has also started seminary with the SBTS extension here. We feel that the strong presence of a theologically solid seminary will be vital to ministry in the city. We have seen first hand the effects of misinformation and lack of knowledge on undue prejudices against believers.
-We have been building relationships with members. We have tried to love and encourage and strengthen the community of believers and the church whenever possible. I'm not sure how to quantify this for you, but we feel we have been able to be of particular help in this area.
We plan to send out a more detailed letter in the near future to let you know where we've been and what the future may look like for us. If you've never received anything from us at your current address, please send mailing address to: leann [dot] gregory [at] gmail [dot] com.
One thing I've picked up on is that there exists in many New Yorkers I have spoken with personally a certain prejudice against Southerners. I wonder how much of that is still left from postbellum America. I've been thinking a lot about...about how we develop our systems of thought and belief or, in some cases, fail to adequately develop them... (by adequate, I might just mean adequate by my standards.) I've been hanging around artists and watching a lot of Civil War movies. And bits of reality TV. If you shake that up in a person's brain with a little bit of Chesterton and a night time view of Manhattan, strange things happen. Maybe I'll save all of this for later.
Let's see who's still reading. What's your favorite Civil War movie? If you're not into Civil War movies, what's your favorite book about the Civil War?
Leann
