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Legitimate Needs

[old post, just now publishing 10/24]

In these past few days, I've been constantly realizing something about the "intentional community" life I'm experiencing anew, and the aforementioned Seven Levels of Intimacy. Kelly's label for the final level, Legitimate Needs, has been constantly popping into my head. That's what community life is, that's what we're all about, and that's what has become such a commonplace here. We ask for help, and we offer help, and we encourage one another in doing so. Earlier this week I went to help an older couple with their laptop/printer/scanner, and got a nice homemade lunch after, something a single guy doesn't always get. I also got to learn more about the couple, she had once upon a time been a nun, and then taught for 35 years, and they have 5 grown children... all adopted at young ages. She has cancer and we've been praying for her for a month or two. Yesterday I drove out to another family's house where it is a middle-age mother who is now single, and her two sons. She had called to ask for my and my roommate's help with scraping paint around her house exterior, preparing for a repaint. A month or two before I arrived in town, my men's group reportedly replaced her sump pump during a particularly crucial wet season. I scraped paint, then sat down and had some pizza with her and her younger son, taking the opportunity to pick his brain for ideas on fun things to do - he is one of 12 or 13 7th grade boys in the community who I'll be spending time with doing youth ministry. We won't particularly be doing a bible study or anything, we'll just be spending time together, having fun in a postive atmosphere, and building an understanding that people other than their immediate families are interested in them and care about them. If all goes as planned, I'll be paintballing for my first time, with them pretty soon.

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