As we watch the Olympic games and cheer for the countries we call home, there are deeper connections that link us beyond our flags or lands of origin.  Many athletes are sharing their faith stories and how Jesus is an integral part of their motivation at Beyondtheultimate.org

September 1 is coming!  The big move date for the Greater Boston area can feel like a city-wide game of musical chairs with Bostonians rushing from their former apartment as a new group moves in.  Where will you be when the music stops?  Post on our housing forum to find a place and some cool people to live with.

 I have made the Sept 1 move many times during my years here.  It starts with purging all of my belongings, donating old clothes and books, and wondering where I got all this stuff? Then begins the box hunt, going around to local vendors and begging for old boxes of flimsy cardboard in random shapes and sizes.  Then there’s the transportation.  In college we had large blue bins on wheels, loaded them with our belongings and wheeled them across campus.  I wheeled mine off campus and up Mission Hill, a great and tiresome effort. 

Other years I crammed my car so full it was hard to see out the windows.  And one lucky year my roommates and I banded together to rent a real moving truck!  Of course it cost 10x the usual rate and we had to drive outside the city to pick it up.  But we loaded in our stuff and with them help of many awesome friends, got moved!

If you are not moving on Sept 1, you are probably helping friends load boxes for some pizza and many thanks at the end.  Or if you have a pickup truck (as few Bostonians do) you will find yourself with many hopeful friends in this coming season!

Then there’s the deals to be found mid-move.  With so many people moving on the same day the yard sales and free items on the curb abound.  Just make sure its up for grabs, before you haul off with someone’s TV! 

A safer bet is to find yourself some new swag or post your unmovables on our classifieds forum to help your fellow man and get your old stuff to a good new home.  My home is furnished almost entirely in gently used items, I never spend more than $50 and I have some incredible finds.  Flat screen TV, microwave, furniture.  You name it, someone has it and someone else needs it!

Before any moving can happen, we all need a place to go, and roommates!  How to find perspective housemates in Boston can be a tricky situation.  With friends finishing school, changing jobs, or getting married a good housemate is an important part of the Sept 1 equation.  In the past I’ve join a number of church webboards, asked friends of friends of friends, and had the awkward “what are you looking for in a roommate?” conversations.  I love living with people and have had many different housemates over the years, to me finding a good housemate is much more valuable than hardwood floors or spot near the T.

If you are searching for Christians in Greater Boston to split the rent, share the space, and be respectful housemates, then don’t waste another minute.  Post on our housing forum and reach over 1800 Christians (and tell your friends of friends of friends…)

 Amid all the joking, I know how important this is and hope UniteBoston will be a resource to serve Christians in Greater Boston by connecting them with their future housemates! I speak from personal experience.  My roommate posted on the housing forum and one week later we have two fabulous new housemates!  Time to turn the music on and start the big move!

Current posting in Arlington, Dorchester, and Ocean View in Winthrop!  Post today, its free! 

As Director of Operations Kelly Steinhaus has had a front row seat to seeing what God is doing through this ministry and the power of unity in the Christian community.  Kelly will be taking a one-year sabbatical from her role with UniteBoston to serve with World Race on a global missions trip.  This week we are highlighting Kelly to thank her for her dedication, vision, and love for increasing unity in the Christian community. 

 

What is your hope for the city of Boston?

Revival. For me revival looks like this: The world has yet to see a city that is united in Christ’s love.  I say lets make Boston that city.  Lets see what God will do with his church that is united in that way.  How would the world view Christians if we really emanated and were permeated with Christ’s love?

 

How have you seen God working in Boston during your time as Director of Operations?

In the beginning when we started sending out the UB newsletter there were a lot of people that understood what God had put on our hearts.  But there were a lot of people that were skeptical and didn’t want to invest effort in what we were doing. In the past year and a half, I’ve seen more and more people praying for unity, longing for unity, talking about unity, and desiring the church to be more than it has been, to be greater than any one congregation or group in the city in the city but to be what God called us to be, truly the body of Christ. I see God really bringing forth that unity in a lot of different ways, not just through UniteBoston, and its a joy to take part in that every day.  Boston was founded to be a City on a Hill and light to the nations, as described by John Winthrop (first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony)  and we’ve in the past 2 years have seen that start to come into greater actualization.  

 

What is one experience that really stands out in your mind as personally moving over the past 2 years?

The experience that’s shaped me the most was the 10 Days of Prayer last fall. 10 Days Boston was such a unique opportunity to worship in 10 different churches of all denominations, neighborhoods and ethnic groups, and really see God’s heart in this city.  I think before those 10 days, I used to view race as something that made us different from one another.  Now I see it as being something that is so supremely unique and special. I guess it changed the way I view people in general. I really encourage people to participate in it this year on September 16 to 26.

 

Where will you be going with World Race?

Ireland, Ukraine, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozabique, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Malasia, and one other country.

 

One other country?  What do you mean?

Our team prays about one final country that God is sending us and Adventures in Missions helps us get there. 

 

How is it structured?

I will be traveling with a team of 5 or 6 people.  Each month we will be partnered with a different missions organization: teaching, building, medical, and others.  Every month will look different based on needs of community, the needs of people in that area, and the ministries themselves.   

 

Why did you decide to participate in the World Race?

Its the opportunity to live out the gospel and the great commission to make disciples of all nations. Today there are still places where less than 1% of people are Christian, there’s no church, and people are not being reached.  There are places in Turkey with 1 Christian in 20,000 people.  Think of Fenway Park for example filled with people and only 2 Christians in the whole place.  It breaks my heart.  I have a passion for people coming to know who God is.  As John Piper said, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.“

 

What are your goals for this year?

I have been taking a class called Perspectives in the World Christian Movement and learned that if we have the mentality that we are going to come and bring the answers, that’s the American way of looking at the world.  I want to go not to do, but to learn and to come alongside what God is already doing there.  I feel that when we leave we will have made a lasting impact, not as a fleeting burst, but as coming alongside what the community is doing with a learner’s heart and learner’s spirit. 

 

What do you hope to gain from this experience?

I think the biggest thing I want to start to understand is gaining a heart for people of all different cultures, backgrounds, and ethnic groups, not just a head knowledge but an experiential knowledge in being part of their culture. I don’t just want to travel, I want to be part of peoples lives and build relationships and experience each individual culture for a month. I’ve heard amazing stories of things that God is doing all over the world and I am excited to see these in action. I think that having that understanding will really impact the way cultures and people groups interact through UniteBoston, understanding what different ethnic groups brings to a city, the gifts that each community, each country brings to a place that is as diverse as Boston, a kaleidoscope of the nations. Not many people know that 26% of the population in Boston and Cambridge were born outside of the United States (Boston Redevelopment Authority).  To date, UniteBoston.com has reached users from 47 countries and 882 cities that have connected with our city in one way or another.  This diversity isn’t just necessary, its beautiful.  

 

When you miss home, will you be visiting UniteBoston.com?

(laughs) Of course. I have a deep love for this city – I think that no matter where I go, my heart will always be here in Boston.