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The Community in Your Front Yard

June 15, 2015 By Gindi Vincent 9 Comments

thetable.gsd

Hi there.

There are a couple of things you should know about me.  I am an introvert.  (Yes, an introvert can look like an extrovert when God calls them to be a speaker!)  I am also a perfectionist.

I’m actually okay with community if (a) they are all people I already know, and (b) I can host them in immaculate fashion with plenty of advance notice.

Ahem.

God finds that humorous.

I went to Allume last year and heard a story about this crazy Turquoise Table my now-friend Kristin had placed in her front yard in Austin.  God started saying, You need to go outside and build some community on your street. 

Just so you know, I ignored Him for a while.  For one thing, I didn’t know ONE SINGLE NEIGHBOR on my street.  We live on a busy street, and my husband and I work full time and have young children, and well you can hear all the excuses.

But He wouldn’t let go of me.  And given that He’s God and I’m just me, I went ahead and said, great, YOU figure out how this is going to happen. 

One day, I will write the story of how God opened doors to actually get an assembled unfinished $88 Lowe’s table to my front door so my triplets and I could paint it on a Saturday, in colors they chose, to have families on my street over two days later. (Y’all, God is AUDACIOUS!)

prepping

That picture up there, that’s my table.  A turquoise, kelly green, and cocoa brown picnic table.

Can I tell you this has nothing to do with me? I am a scaredy-cat. I want to make-a-good-show. I didn’t actually WANT to meet my neighbors because I was comfortable coming home after work to just my people.

I was completely freaked out by “what will people think.” The trio and I walked up and down my street on Saturday morning and put flyers in everyone’s mailbox inviting them to come to “the table” for Monthly Mondays.  The first of which would be the very next Monday with pizza and drinks.  I was WILDLY uncomfortable standing in my front yard with my kids at 5 pm wondering if anyone would come.

But this is what God made more uncomfortable for me:  I’d lived on this street for over eight years, and I didn’t know anyone that lived around me.  All of the 15 flyers I passed out on either side and across from my house went to people whose names I didn’t know and whose stories I’d never heard.  God made that unacceptable and He proposed this as the solution.  I felt like I was going to throw up as soon as we delivered those flyers.

So there we stood, in the front yard, with ten boxes of pizza, a big cooler of water bottles and juice boxes, and a bowl of name tags.

Six families came.  Y’all, out of fifteen houses, SIX whole families came.  Twelve kids played on the front tire swing and gobbled cookies one of the neighbors had brought “to the table.” I could have cried.  In one hour, six families on a busy street in a big city met each other and shared stories.

table2

We told everyone this table was theirs too.  That our house could be a place they were always welcome.  I want my kids to know that our space has been entrusted to us to share with others.  {===>Tweet This}

We have hosted six Monthly Mondays.  And God used imperfect little me to email my pastor and say maybe our church could go into our community somehow.  Turns out, that is EXACTLY what his vision and prayer for the church was.  So he says, “let’s give away these tables to our members.  ANYONE who walks to the front on Sunday morning to sit at a table can have one delivered!”  My church, oh y’all, my church is going to be community building with the FORTY-SIX tables they gave away in February.

I’d been trying to survive with work and triplets and a maze of schedules and competing demands, but I have to show my kids life can’t all be rushed and hurried and we MUST NOT hide out behind our four walls.  We have to clear out some of the clutter and make time for community.  {===>Tweet This}

That’s what we need more of: Community. I hope God calls you out your front door to be the Light on your street too.

Shared by: Gindi Vincent

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About Gindi Vincent

Gindi Vincent dreamed dreams as far back as she can remember. Today, her life resembles nothing of her childhood visions of serving in Africa, but God has allowed her to serve in an entirely different space. She is an attorney for a global energy company, mama to four-year-old triplets, and wife to a farmer/restaurateur hunk. She has experienced storms that knocked her dreams off course, but God charted a course that’s taken her beyond what she could ask or imagine. Gindi authors a daily blog for working women of faith at Gindi's, offers random musings, and released her first book, Learning to Lead, in 2013.

Comments

  1. AvatarKaren Looby says

    June 15, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    Oh my. This is a challenge to me. I wonder if this is a thing I should do.

    Reply
    • Avatargindivin says

      June 15, 2015 at 10:39 pm

      You could start small – invite someone across the street for coffee, it just takes one step!

      Reply
  2. AvatarLisa Wagner says

    June 15, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    Wow! You… are me!
    I… am you!
    I have heard God speak to me about my neighbors.
    And I… have made a BUNCH of excuses.

    My next door neighbor built a house on this pretty wooded lot.
    And as they put in their pool…. tore out ALL the trees that stood between our home.
    ALL the trees.

    As I heard the garumph, garumph, of the machines outside my bathroom window, I cringed.
    How could they?

    And now, for months, I have requested several different contractors to bid on jobs for landscaping and fences.
    Do you know how many have given me bids….?
    Guess how many have said they would get right back to me and seemed very interested in the job….?

    They must have lost my phone number.
    ALL of them.

    So, God keeps telling me to go next door and invite her over.
    I have gone once.
    She wasn’t home.
    I haven’t gone back.
    Now… I read this.

    Guess it’s time to go back… and invite her over.
    That openness for me to see right into her backyard is NOT going to be filled in with a fence, shrubs or landscaping until I get moving and build community.

    Thank you for being honest.
    Thank you for stepping out.
    Thank you for reminding me.

    Reply
    • Avatargindivin says

      June 15, 2015 at 10:41 pm

      Oh Lisa I love that! You know, when God calls you to do something, He will NOT let it go. I can’t tell you the weeks I fought with him over this. Get over there girl – you may end up with a door in your fence and a picnic table you all share!!! (And yes, my neighbors and I are now considering cutting a door out so our kids can play back and forth b/c they so adore each other – all b/c of that bright table in our front yard!)

      Reply
      • AvatarLisa Wagner says

        June 17, 2015 at 1:31 pm

        I went yesterday. I kept waiting for the rain to stop. Then I got out my rain slicker and told myself, “Lisa, you will not melt!” She was home with her kids doing a science experiment. We had a great visit. God is in this!
        Thank you for your honesty. Without the depths of it, I would not have really connected to you.
        I am feeling God calling me to show more of my weaknesses on my blog. Even though it will be hard! I see the power in this… the movement in it, propelling others.

        Reply
  3. Avatarbetsydecruz says

    June 16, 2015 at 3:12 am

    Six families came on the first time? Awesome! I’ve been there so many times, as you describe, wondering if anyone will show up. And they always do. I don’t have a turquoise table, but we often have people over, sometimes when it’s a group, I don’t really know who will come. (I live in the MidEast, where people say “Inshallah” when you invite them. That means: “Hopefully I might come if nothing happens to prevent it.” 🙂

    Reply
  4. AvatarElise Daly Parker says

    June 16, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    Oh I just love this story. How beautiful. Look what God does when we step out in hard faith. I don’t know, Gindi…could I every do such a thing. What a challenge. Even thinking about it brings tears to my eyes and gets my heart beating. I am so proud of you for stepping out!

    Reply
  5. Avatarfolasade says

    August 4, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    wow, this just changed my life. although I think it was going this way anyway.lol.

    Reply

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    June 15, 2015 at 8:11 am

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