boston commoner.

welcome home

I would like to direct your attention to the sidebar, where you will notice a new heading, “my church,” under which you find the link to our new church website. Austin Matzko deserves major kudos for taking so much time to design our new site, and so has earned the lofty title of “webmeister.” I’ve been waiting a long time to post this link, since our other site was somewhat outdated. I hope you guys enjoy visiting us, and do it often; we hope to post more news about what’s going on in Boston, along with photos, so that you all can get to know us better. If you’re looking for me in the photo on the homepage, I am the kind-of-blond in the middle, giggling with her eyes closed, serious and as photogenic as ever (ha). You’ll notice, however, that we have plenty of wonderful people capable of looking a camera in the eye who make up for my general deficiencies in this area. They are even more friendly and better-looking in real life! Visit us sometime!

It seems that this weekend swept over me like a wave of contradictory events, some happy, some sad, some frustrating, all ultimatey awe-inspiring, and has left me here at the end of a vast ocean of ambiguity, wet and shivering, but still sensing the strength of the sun that has moved behind a winter cloud. (more…)

Here is a recent picture of my Pastor’s family (or, at least, part of it). The old, bearded man is Pastor Bill. The pretty, much younger-looking woman is his charming wife, Deb. The tall, handsome, still younger man is Dave, their youngest son (the two older brothers are long gone and married; I’ve never met them, but I’m sure they’re as great as the rest of the Edmondsons). And last, but certainly not least, is the baby of the family, Linda. She is delightful, and always invites me for Sunday lunch, even when her parents don’t ;o)

These are great people. Pray for them!

“A couple of years ago, I was standin’ out there where all you guys are, watchin’ my dad do the same thing, thinkin’, ‘He’s nuts!’ I seriously thought he had lost his mind, or somethin…”

It’s not every day you get to watch a teenage Bostonian girl admit what she was really thinking about your church family all of those months before she got saved. Especially since it wasn’t all that flattering. But so began Felicia’s testimony, as told before the congregation of the International Baptist Church of Boston this past Sunday.

A sweet prelude to any baptism, a new believer’s testimony can touch the hearts of those floundering in the coldest waters of the mundane. Like Mandy’s story, Felicia’s was told in her own words, flavored by the fresh expression of one otherwise ‘un-churched,’ combined with local colloquialisms and accents, all bound up by the barest and boldest sincerity of newborn faith–faith in Something real; in Someone substantial; in Somebody so grand, He can’t possibly be made up, Who has left so much evidence behind and around Him that He needn’t ever be so. (more…)

About a month ago, I had the priviledge of attending my first outdoor baptism service. An international student and long-time attendee of the Sunday evening evangelistic Bible studies, Mandy (Jia Man) had recently been attending the Sunday morning worship services, as well. One Sunday after the worship service, we were all cluttered in the hallway, as usual, pretending to leave. Our group is always pretending to leave. We’re hopelessly unskilled in the art of exodus. We’re always finding other excuses to stay, initiating new conversations, sitting down again after we’ve stood up to go…twice… (more…)