A few weeks ago a homegroup from our church came up and put on a carnival for the kids in our neighborhood.  It was pooring rain (the one day that week it rained of course), but there were still almost 60 kids out having fun!  After the carnival about 30 of them came back to our house to watch a short cartoon and eat some popcorn.  We kept getting asked by amazed faces did you guys do this?! We told them our friends did, and they kept saying, you guys are so cool! And we didn’t even do anything.  Thank you to all who came up and put it on – you did all the work and you made us look so good without doing anything!  Perhaps the greatest outcome of the carnival was a mom we had never met (though 2 of her 3 boys are at our house all the time) came into our house to watch the movie with us.  In any other context there is little chance she would have come into our home, but this was a safe context, and it allowed us to make a connection and begin a relationship with her!  So cool.

The novelty of the Michelle and Brian have long since worn off and life has taken a much more methodical style. Mondays: date day; Tuesdays: homework club; Wednesdays: The Young @ Mill Creek Foursquare; Saturdays: family night; Sundays: @ Mill Creek Foursquare.
Tuesdays we’re at homework club after school from which the kids all follow us home and hang out until we kick them out for dinner. They always come back after if we let them.  One of the boundaries we’ve established is a protection around our dinner time as a family – no phone calls, no text messages, and no kids that don’t belong to us (my brother who is now living with us gets to stay:]).  I’m still learning to abide by these boundaries!

Last Tuesday Emilio came into homework club and handed me a set of childrens’ books.  I looked at him and asked him, “you want me to hold onto these for you?” He answered, “No, those are for you.” I was so confused and asked him what he meant.  He explained to us that he had told his teacher about us, how he comes to our house to do his homework and read some of the books we have, and she wanted to help our “library”, so she gave us a set of books!  How cool is that!?!? We’ve never met this teacher, yet she has blessed us incredibly.  And what an honor to be such a part of a child’s life that he tells his teacher at school about us!  Wow.  God is so good.

Speaking of God being good, so are his people!  We had an opportunity to share about what we are doing at church a couple weeks ago, and have been blessed by the response of our community.  The Goertz family donated about 60 books and 30 matchbox cars.  The cars have now replaced the LEGOs as the favorite toy, and the books allowed us to officially open our “library”!  It was a beautiul thing.  Eight students followed us back from homework club and their eyes expanded upon seeing all the new books!  an we read them!? They all wanted to know.  I told them better than that, they can even borrow them!  Like a library? one of them asked me.  Absolutely.  The spent the next twenty minutes going through all the books and finding ones they could read – I had to use the “five-finger-rule” with a few of them to get an appropriate book (if there are more than 5 words on a page they can’t read it’s probably too hard for fun reading).  We have a little notebook in which they write down their name, the name ofthe book, and the date they borrowed it.  They can get a second book after we’ve checked off the return of their first book.  Two sixth grade boys asked me with excited faces, “Can we be library helpers?  Can we organize the books for you?“  Absolutely, are you kidding me! So now,almost daily, we have students returning a book and getting another.

Sometimes now that life has become more methodical I begin to think that we are doing less, that our impact is lessening, that we should be doing more.  Then something happens like Emilio bringing us books from his teacher that remind us that we are living intentionally present, that we are caring about the kids and they know it, and we are having an impact.  Maybe we could do more.  Maybe we could be more intentional about getting to know more adults.  Maybe.  Life is hard when it’s busy – and it’s hard to make more time for community, eh?  We too struggle with this.  The most common feeling we have is that Michelle and I do not have enough time for each other.  So sometimes we kick the kids out, close the blinds, and play games or talk – just the two of us.  Living in community is not about burning out.  But it is about making a difference, no matter how big.

God has blessed us immeasurably the past five months.  The children have brought great joy (and weariness at times) to us, and our community has supported and encouraged us.  I doubt we will ever be content to live any other way.  The greatest part of constantly allowing the love of God to flow out of us is that we are constantly encountering new love of God flowing into us.  His mercies are truly new every morning.

So, there’s a little update.  Thank you all so much who have been a part of what God has done in our neighborhood – big and small!   May God’s love be present in your neighborhood through you.

Observation without relationship allows little influence and creates little change.  We live in a culture where everyone has an opinion on just about everything and most of us have no problem letting others know what we think – whether it be on sports, parenting, food, lifestyle choices, behavior, or any of the variety of conversational options available to us.  We are constantly observing one another and constantly coming to conclusions regarding what we would do if we were in that position, what they should do, and why they should listen to us (many times these thoughts are subconscious, and many times these subconscious thoughts are voiced).  Observation is healthy.  That’s not the problem.  Encouragement and advice is often good (key word: often, not always), but there is a catch.  Encouragement and advice outside of relationship and love becomes opinion and judgment.  Observation without relationship allows little influence and creates little change.

Having a house-full of people on Thursday night provided an excellent opportunity to observe relational interactions and behavior.  Especially when that houseful included twin 7-year old boys, a 9 year old with Down Syndrome (possibly my favorite kid!), random kids running in and out  between the ages of 4 and 12, three teenagers, and a few adults!  As everyone milled around my house eating the 40 or so hotdogs that I grilled up (my boys decided to have a guys night because Michelle was gone, and others just kind of joined in the fun!), I just kind of stepped back to watch, to learn about the people I was with [note: thank you SE4square for the hot dogs!].

The interaction that I observe with the most intentionality is the parenting relationship.  Michelle and I, as people who care deeply for the family yet have no children of our own yet, have such incredible respects for the difficulties and challenges in raising children.  We both have received education in child development, and have significant experience working with children of a variety of ages, and in many contexts, particularly one such as the one in which we find ourselves, that means we have received more instruction about healthy parenting than many of the parents around us – but at the same time, neither of us are parents and we fully recognize and accept that.  We are constantly observing parent-child interactions around us, and observe so many that are less than healthy – excessive discipline, using anger, threats, fear as a forms of discipline, inconsistency, lack of boundaries, etc – that we long to discuss with the parents around us.  Yet encouragement and advice outside of relationship and love becomes opinion and judgment.  Observation without relationship allows little influence and creates little change.

This is a difficult thing to remember.  It is even more difficult to practice.  How can we observe something that we know we could help to be so much better (a parent’s relationship with a child for example) and do nothing?  Isn’t being able to help and not helping a sin or something?  We’re asking the wrong question.  Instead of asking how can we fix this situation? the better question is how do we foster a community of healthy families? Do we seek to correct all “bad” behavior as soon as we see it, or do we seek to model and develop a community of love, caring, compassion, discipline and relationship? As much as we would love to sit down with many of the parents and discuss helpful parenting practices, we cannot begin there.  Maybe one day, maybe soon, we will have to opportunity for conversations like that, but encouragement and advice outside of relationship and love becomes opinion and judgment. We must start with relationship.  We must start in relationship.  We must begin by opening up our home to children, to parents.  All of the children that come through our door understand that the McMahon home is different.  We have expectations on the behavior of the kids, on how they treat our home, toys we let them play with, books, each other, and ourselves.  We must start in our home.  Every once in a while we find a parent watching how we interact with their child – how we correct, rebuke, encourage, affirm, and love.  Some day (we pray someday soon), maybe we can actually have a conversation about parenting (maybe why it would be beneficial for 6 and 7 year-olds to be in bed before 10:30pm!).  But encouragement and advice outside of relationship and love becomes opinion and judgment.  Therefore we must live our lives as lights before men and women, visibly living a different way of life, and as relationship is built, it is not opinion and judgment being shot at those around us, but encouragement and love and an invitation given to our communities to share life together with us!

Not always easy in a culture in which tension is perceived as bad and problems are to be fixed ASAP.  The way of Jesus is far more relational than easy, far more love than opinion, and far better than anything without him!

even though you know that you know that you know it?  Those moments where you ask yourself, do I even know how to hear God speak to me?  Am I really where he has asked me to be, or have I somehow mucked it all up and ruined his plan for my life? In our moments of clarity these questions are really

kind of ridiculous, but in our moments of doubt they are very real, penetrating to the depths of the mind and soul.  You know what I’m talking about?  These are the moments when, even though we absolutely know the devil is lying into our ears, for some reason we still give that voice credence, though momentary, and this challenges everything that we know.

This past week was like that for me.  As I was expressing it to my wife the other day she looked at me astonished saying you actually think this?  You actually believe this? No.  Of course I don’t.  I know what I believe, yet in that moment they became very real possibilities – even though in that moment I knew those possibilities to be false, charades drawn up by the enemy to confuse and destroy.  Why do we give those thoughts place in our lives?  I have no idea.  Weakness maybe.  Perhaps we are searching for a pat on the back, confirmation that we are where we knew we needed to be all along and therefore we question everything and create drama, just hoping that God steps in and says, in his gentle, incredible way, silly, you know this is where I want you, you know what is true, you know that other voice is simply a lie.  You are truly silly my child! Yesterday was one of those moments.  I know God has led us to The Bluffs, but still I asked, really?  Are we sure?  Maybe we messed this us (even as it is so overwhelmingly evident that God brought us here – isn’t it amazing how we do that?).

Michelle worked from 2-8pm yesterday, giving me some time to a house that is empty for the first time in two weeks (we had students living with us the past two weeks).  You’d think I’d spend some time in solitude and silence (both needs in my life), but not yesterday.  I’m pretty sure from the moment Michelle left to the moment I picked her up from work someone else was constantly with me.  And I’m not talking about Someone Else, I’m talking about people. Four o’clock found me at our community pool feeling loved as just about all of the 25 kids in the pool were calling out Brian, watch me!  Brian, watch this!  Hi Brian! The innocence and joy of children overwhelms me sometimes.  I ended up playing football at the pool with my j-high boys (Miles, Scott, Michael, Tristen, Deon, Cowboy, Daniel, and others) and playing at the pool somehow led to me bbq-ing hot dogs for all of us for dinner.  Thank you South Everett Foursquare – we are still using the extra hotdogs from that bbq at our house at the beginning of the month!

Now, most of the kids know that I’m a pastor (though, with their Catholic background, many refer to me as a priest instead), and so, as I’m standing there grilling dogs on my patio, surrounded by 7^th and 8^th graders, one of them pipes up and asks me, how come you’re a church guy? I said, I don’t know if I’d call myself a church guy.  I’m really a Jesus guy, and that’s why I go to church. So he continued, well, why are you a Jesus guy?  Hmmmm. Well, now that you ask, let me drive my bus through that wide open doorway.  It was so beautiful.  I gave a brief answer of a God that absolutely loves us, wanting to be in relationship with us, and how I wanted that relationship because I couldn’t do life by myself, and so I needed Jesus.  Then another kid goes, I have a friend who’s an atheist.  He’s got a lot of questions.  He asks his mom, but she can’t answer them.  I invited him to ask them.  They were questions about how God can exist (to which I asked, ”why do you think God doesn’t exist?”), about stealing, about how you know you get to go to heaven.   I couldn’t believe this was happening.  My church kids never sit with such seriousness or questions!  My heart leapt with joy.  This is what I live for – to share Jesus with those around me.

I spent about thirty minutes with the boys (the grilling was followed by a meal around our kitchen table, followed by snacks on our patio – again, thank you to all who have given to us to give to those around us!).  In that thirty minute span I spoke about the story of God creating a people to be in relationship with him, of that people choosing to follow their own ways instead of God’s ways, and of the gap, the separation in relationship that came as a consequence.  I spoke of God’s incredible love for his people, but his holiness and desire for perfection and the consequences and punishment for everything that we do that is not in the ways of God.  I spoke about God coming back to judge everybody for what we’ve done, and how one bad thing is enough to keep us from entering God’s presence for eternity.  The kids got a little freaked out, asking if that meant they were screwed.  What a perfect question.  So I spoke about that indeed, they were kinda screwed (they didn’t like that thought much), but there was a way out.  So I told of God loving us so much that he had his son be born among us, live with us, experience all we experience, live in perfection, and when he died, I told of how Jesus offered to take the punishment that was due us for the consequences of what we’ve done.  I spoke of a God that loves us so incredibly, who absolutely longs to be in relationship with us – not just to save us from the consequences of our action, but to actually live with us in this life.

How beautiful is that?  How incredible?

Michael asked if stealing was wrong. What do you think? I asked.  He said yeah , cause it was taking what didn’t belong to you (but does anything really belong to any of us?).  But then he said, “What about if you really need it?  Is stealing ok then?” So I spoke of a God of love who established some rules and guidelines – all in love – to help us live in love with one another.  I explained that the problem with stealing is that it is not acting in love toward that person.  I told him that is what community is for – so that those that have share with those that need.  I explained that in God’s eyes, if I have and don’t share, I am just as bad as someone who needs and takes (1 Jn3:17)– because both act in selfishness instead of the love that God wants for us.

As I walked down the street to pick Michelle up from work, I marveled in the goodness of God.  In a moment of my doubt, in a moment when I chose to give space to lies and confusion, God chose to encounter me with his beautiful people.  God chose to encounter me, and remind me of how silly I am to doubt his goodness, his hand in our life.  God’s love and gracious compassion overwhelm me.  In the moment when I least deserved his goodness – when my faith was failing, he encountered me and spoke his love and joy to my spirit.

“…let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” – 1Jn3:18

I think it’s been over a week now since I last posted anything.  Probably the longest stretch without a post yet – for fairly good reason.   July has been an incredibly hectic month (but a great month).  We are just finishing our first week of having one of our youth from Mill Creek Foursquare live with us, and looking forward to another (or two, or…?).

Brandon has been with us since last Sunday and it has been quite a wonderful experience.   We opened up our home to our students from MC4 with the hope of creating a context for relationship to be built between them and the people in our community here at the Bluffs.  I think my favorite moment was coming home on Tuesday after being gone for a few hours to Brandon’s report that at one point he had sixteen kids in our home playing LEGOs and hanging out.  Go Brandon!  He has genuinely begun some friendships with our neighborhood kids, and it is such a beautiful thing to watch him loving those around him for Jesus!  We’ve had numerous incredible conversations about what it means to be a individual raised in privilege, what our responsibilities are to those around us (and those whom our privilege have disabled from actually being around  us).

This week has seen our first outdoor movie night – we borrowed a projector from church and Brandon set it up outside our home on the opposing wall and we gathered fifteen or more kids to watch Kung Fu Panda.  I think we’ll do it more often once it gets dark a bit earlier (9:15 is a bit late to begin a movie!).

This week also saw our first spontaneous community potluck, something I have been wanting for quite a while.  Jeff and Mike joined Michelle, Brandon, and I playing basketball, and afterword invited us in for spaghetti.  Since we had already started dinner (defrosting some salmon someone gave us, and making a salad), we suggested that they bring their spaghetti, and we bring our salmon, hot dogs, and salad, and we eat it together at the picnic table.  We spent the next hour or so chatting with (finally!) some of our adult neighbors.  It’s a start.  Hopefully meals like this will become far more consistent.

We’ve seen an increase in older students hanging out with us ever since Brandon got here (you don’t hear any complaints from us!).  We have found them to be willing teachers of Spanish and of culture.  I have begun learning about the gang culture that is quite prevalent here on Casino Road.  We will see where God leads.

Not the most graciously worded of blogs, but I wanted to take a moment and let you all know what has been going on this past week – and there’s quite a bit as you can tell!  Pray for us as we discover what community means, as we pray that you grow as the people of God, living in a way that provides those caught in the brokenness of our world an alternative to what they know!

As I stood staring up to the balcony of my friend Jeff, listening as he told me the stories behind each of his eight tatoos, where he got them, and from whom; as I stood in that same place a couple days later listening to the enourmous list of movies he has that he’d gladly let me borrow, for some reason all I could think about was how this wasn’t comfortable – my neck hurt, and I really just wanted to talk about the things that I think are important (do you hear my arrogance, my selfishness?).

The very next moring I prayed, “God, I so badly want those around me to know you, but don’t know how to bring that about,” two thoughts were brought into my mind.  The first was a quote from Bonheoffer that says “intersession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors”, and the second was God saying, “are you really willing to do what it takes to reach your people?”  It may be that I would rather engage in a conversation about issues in life and the world and God, but who am I to think that I somehow get to determine how a relationsip progresses? 

I complain that I can’t figure out how to tell my neighbors about Jesus, but then God reminds me that I keep turning down his suggestions. The irony is that this idea of “not my terms, but God’s” is something I talk to my students about all the time.  I constantly remind them how relational our God is, and for others to see God, it often must come through our relational interaction with them.  Yet here I am, trying to reach people once again without relationship (or at least with my idea of relationship). 

That’s just it, isn’t it? How often do we follow the way of Jesus until it contradicts our way of thinking – our thoughts on the effectiveness of conversation, relationship, or preaching? 

Proverbs 3:5 says, as we commonly hear, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”  The very next line is “Do not be wise in your own eyes…”  We (or at least I do) say all the time how we really don’t know what we’re doing, we’re just figuring it out as we go.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have thoughts regarding how it should be, what should happen, what kinds of conversations should develop.  That is the wisdom of our own eyes.

In the end, all that we can fall back upon is the absolute need for reliance on the grace of God.  The more we hold to our methods, the less we rely on God’s.  Now, in the process of releasing our methods, God may indeed give them back to us – but then they’re God’s and not ours, and that changes everything.

Let us seek to love with everything.  Let us seek relationship with those around us – even in ways that make us uncomfortable and put strains in our necks.  Following Jesus is not about our plans or ideas (for as soon as we have them, we are following ourselves and no longer following Jesus), but about listening to the call of our Great Shepherd, and following where she leads.  To that end we must believe.

So I ask, what does it mean to live intentionally in our respective communities, when our time there is limited?  As I strive to live and relate intentionally to the people around me, I am fully encountering how difficult it is.  I work 40-50 hours a week, and when I get home, I want to spend time with my incredible wife.  Marriage must and always will be our first ministry (for those of us who are married), a responsibility that takes presedence over any other ministry.  By the time I get home and spend a little time with my wife (I’m not sure “too much time with spouse” exists – at least not yet!), the day is almost over and I haven’t even done anything in my community, let alone anything that I usually enjoy doing (exercise, reading, relaxing!).  Anybody relate to this?  So what do we do?

I am realizing just the immensity of our endeavor to reach The Bluffs.  We cannot do it alone – I don’t think we were intended to.  I know that cannot really expect myself to build community with everyone, but when there is no one else doing it, the feeling that we fight is that we must do it all.  So, we are learning three things: 1) we am absolutely dependent upon God. 2) We desperately need others to come and join us (yes, move into The Bluffs with us), and 3) we must learn to be content with the relationships God brings us (note: content does not mean complacent, and is not an excuse to limit intentionality).

Bonheoffer wrote in Cost of Discipleship, “There is no way from one person to another.  However loving…sympathetic…frank and open our behavior, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him.  That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer, offered in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship.”

In that light, I ask this of you: intercede on our behalf.  We desperately want to welcome those around us into relationship with us and with Christ Jesus.  Join us in intercession for The Bluffs.

While most of them were coloring one little girl found the tootsie pops we were given and screamed, “Oo Oo, can I have one? Please please please?” I gave one to her and then she ran out the door. 10 seconds later I look out the window with about 15 more kids running to my porch also wanting one. After handing out about 30 tootsie pops I said, “Ok, we’re all done for tonight. No mas. No more.” Around 20 kids remained in the house and as I was trying to manage them all I realized I can’t do this alone. I need to create a balance of what hospitality looks like when I am by myself at home vs. when both Brian and I are there. I become overwhelmed.

Please be in prayer that this will be seamless. When I turn down kids to create boundaries my heart keeps on wondering, “Have they eaten tonight? Will they eat today?” I need to get to know them better, to know their needs so that I can minister appropriately.

The night ended with 3 kids sitting on my couch asking me to read them some stories out of this book, (the kids Bible).  We read about Joseph, Moses, and Jesus. We read about the miracles Jesus did and the kids said, “That can’t happen.” I said, “Well, I know I couldn’t do that by myself. But maybe God can. What do you think?” They replied, “I don’t know.”

Baby steps.

We love you.  Here’s a picture of two of our favorites!

Here is a picture of what it looks like outside of our patio door. In the background, right before the little building back there, you can see the playground where all the kids are.  Way off to the left is the basketball court where Brian schools the j-high boys!

We have had numerous people come up to us and ask how can we help?  What needs do you have? We have been overwhelmed with the desire in our greater community to support us.  Our answer to those questions is often we don’t know. One of the principles that we believe in is learning about our community.  Right now, a month in, we know a few people (some would say a lot of people), but there are so many we don’t know.  We barely know anyone’s story, let alone the needs that exist in their lives. We believe that as we build relationship with those around us that needs will become evident.  As we discover those needs it is amazing to know that we have a community that supports us and is willing to meet those needs.  We do not want to become a charity, people just running around handing things out that people may or may not need.  We want to actually know our people, to know what they need and don’t need, so that as the body of Christ, the surplus of some may meet the needs of others (II Corinthians 8).

Do not stop asking how to help, but please do not become discouraged or frustrated that we do not yet know what we need!  We are in a time of discovery, we are learning.

The needs that we have right now: we would love children’s books for our little library.  We would love to have things to offer our children as they come in, we would love to help them learn and improve their reading, coloring, drawing, writing, etc.  If you have ideas or resources you are wondering about, email us or give us a call

Brian: mcmahb@spu.edu     (206) 554-1041
Michelle: gibsom@spu.edu )360) 931-5981

Again, thank you.  Keep praying.  God is so good.

So Thursday morning I get a phone call from Cindy.  She had 100 bagels that apparently hadn’t risen well enough to sell.  Would we like them?  Could we use them? Of course I said yes.  Not only did she give us that bagels, but cream cheese to go with it (cream cheese makes every bagel just a little bit better!), a big container of kool-aid, and some lunch meats.  What a blessed family is Cindy’s.
When I got home Thursday night, I divided the bagels up into bags of ten. As kids began to dribble in (as they always do in the evening after school), I started giving one bag to each family.  They got so excited (especially over the cream cheese – I told you so!).  After giving out sixty bagels to the kids, I took a couple bags to the adults that we have met.  That gratitude was apparent.  Incredible what gaps are bridged through food.

The most beautiful thing was that giving away these bagels was not seen as the charity it would have been if Cindy had brought it up and handed it out, but as neighborly kindness, of sharing our extra with our community (which brings about an entirely different response and relationship).  This is exactly what the church is all about.  We are to work together for the betterment of all. Michelle and I could not have fed ten families bagels yesterday if Cindy had not given us the food.  Cindy could not have realized her desire to feed the people on Casino Road if Michelle and I had not moved into The Bluffs.  Our God works in wonderful, beautiful ways.

Thank you, thank you, to all who have been part of our journey here so far – through your prayers, and through your support in other ways (giving us furniture, food, letting us borrow vehicles, visiting).  We are so blessed to be part of an incredible community at Mill Creek Foursquare and beyond. We truly believe that as we all continue to seek the face of God that he will lead us to radically impacting, changing, transforming, and breathing life into our communities!