Boston!

Two months ago I ventured on a trip with NAMB -North American Mission Board- to live in Boston as a missional student working alongside a church plant. I lived in Roslindale, Massachusetts; it’s just south of Boston proper and at the south end of the Orange line on the T -what locals call the metro system- I stayed in an Airbnb with eight other girls who were also apart of the program. My team worked alongside of a church in Jamaica Plain (neighborhood beside Roslindale) called “City on a Hill Forest Hills”, or COAH Forest Hills as we came to call it. COAH is part of a chain of churches that are multiplying churches -meaning they plant other churches- Forest Hills has been around since 2020, they started just before the epidemic, and by the grace of God kept afloat when so many other churches fell under. My team was able to work with the head pastor and the executive pastor this summer; as well as with the other ministry options that are in Forest Hills.

Each member of my team worked in a different church ministry, I worked with the executive pastor in the prayer ministry. Some of my jobs were to see what other churches did with their prayer ministries, how they operated and what they did to keep prayer as a major part of their lives. I created some prayer text threads, and then I planned a prayer and worship night. I loved working with this ministry. I’ve never had so much fun planning something, but the prayer and worship night was one of the best things I did this summer. Sitting in that room as the band played you could feel the Holy Spirit moving through the space.

As the summer went on I realized I really loved Boston. I kept thinking “what if I stayed?” I would dismiss this thought with another one, “i’m in the honeymoon phase with Boston, I’ll grow out of it, and in a few weeks I’ll be praying to God, for Him to help me make it through the last stretch so I can go home.” and every time I thought about staying I kept repeating this in my head, but it didn’t change. I saw the poorer areas of Boston, the scary things that come with living in big cities, but I didn’t stop wanting to stay. So halfway through the summer I texted my young adult pastor, and Sunday school leader at home, as well as my mom, asking them for prayer on the thought of staying in Boston. I also told the pastor I was working alongside with in Forest Hills.

My team decided on our sabbaths -which were Mondays- we would fast lunch until dinner together when we would meet for bible study. Our first week of fasting I prayed specifically about staying in Boston. When my team leaders asked what we prayed about I told them my prayer and they were all very pleased and thrilled to hear that. They began praying for me too. Come the second week of fasting -or like fourth-ish week of the program- I knew God wanted me to stay. So I started calling friends and family telling them. But I was faced with two major problems. One | Where would I stay? My program housing only lasted until the end of the summer, what would I do for the time after that? Two | What would I do for money? How would I feed myself? The money from the program would run out soon, and I would need a way to provide for myself. So a new prayer was born.

The program I was apart of is called Gensend, for generation send. One of the things we did was every Thursday we met at a church in Downtown Boston, we were given options to sign up and be in groups or cohorts as they called them. Each cohort was about something different. I was in the communication cohort, we talked about how to communicate the Gospel in contextualized ways, how to utilize what the world is giving us, like social media. one of the Thursdays we had a guest, her name was Jullie Love. her and her husband -Matt- own three coffee shops, soon to be four. They are called “The Well” kinda like how its the well where you come and get the water of life to thirst no more. Jullie talked about how The Well operates and the work they do, not just in making coffee but in giving people hope. After all of this Jullie asks if anyone wants to move to Boston and work at The Well. My hand shot up.

We were nearing the end of my program time, I had long conversations with one of the programs head -her name is Tali, she’s awesome.- and we considered -briefly- that I sign up for a new facet of Gensend, called Go2, where you choose a city and choose to live, work, and attend school -if you were still in it- for two years while also committing your free time to a local church. Gensend even gave a money stipend and sometimes -when available to, they also provided housing, and this was one of the years they had a house!- It sounded perfect, except for the houses location. The house was in Somerville -which is north of Cambridge- This is nearly an hour and a half from my church I wanted to work with, and at least forty-five minutes from the State street Well location -where I was applying for a job- you’d think, “oh well sign up for this Go2 and just find your own housing but use the stipend.” Gensend is run by NAMB, and there was certain guidelines inside of that, one of them was, if I was going to do the Go2 program I would have to stay in the housing provided that year. It was a nonnegotiable requirement. So I kept it as a backup option. I didn’t like it, but I needed a place to live. It was the backup plan.

I remember being at one of the Gensend Thursday night dinners when the executive pastor from COAH texted me. His text read, “I have good new!” and when I excitedly replied with “Really?! What is it?!!” He left me on read for nearly thirty minutes. Now thirty minutes is not a lot of time, however in that moment it felt like an eternity! When I still had no answer from him as we moved on from dinner to worship I emphasized my previous text with a lovely “????” and he responded! Along with some laughing emojis he said “I’ve found you a place to live! I have housing for you until the end of December!” and I was ecstatic! Having a house meant that all I really needed now was a job. I had been texted Jullie for a few days now and would have a meeting that following Monday with her, Matt -her husband- and Andrew -their son, who was also the manager of the State street location.-

The meeting for the Well went great! I was to volunteer the next Monday to make sure I could handle all the business and stress of the job, but also for existing employees to gage if I was a good fit. The last few weeks with my Gensend team was bittersweet, everyone was excited to go back home, to moms, dads, brothers, sisters, boyfriends, girlfriends, normal friends, pets, and some even to school. However it was bitter because I was painfully reminded I would not be seeing my family anytime soon. I had chosen to stay which meant I couldn't see my loved ones regularly and phone calls would have to replace face-to-face conversation. I remember having to leave a couple of talks with my team because I was suddenly struck with overwhelming sadness and not seeing my little brothers. There is a little boy at COAH who has a laugh that sounds like my baby brothers and I nearly broke down into tears when I heard it.

My volunteer day at the Well went swimmingly. I learned how to make iced drinks, clean the counters and properly clean dishes -this may not sound fun to others, but the fact that I was able to do these simpler jobs so the other baristas could eloquently make coffees made it so great!- I had loved it. And better yet, the employees all agreed I would do well here -pun intended- so I had a job! God was putting everything in place for this to happen. But I was missing my family and friends. I missed how my older brothers picked on me and showed me videos of their interests, how the oldest would come and talk to me about things he loved that I barely understood. I missed my little brothers, the baby and his energy but also his chill focus on things, the middle baby and his hyper ness and how he just wants to give you hugs! Or the one who had recently outgrown me, and how he was as relaxed as could be, but he would use every opportunity to make a joke. I was deeply missing them all. And I was sorely missing my mom and dad, their steady presence in my life since -literally- birth. how my mom and I would watch Gilmore Girls whenever, how my dad just wanted to hear about my days and what I had done. I missed them. I remember my last Sunday with my team at COAH I had to leave during the last song and go outside to cry. I was very emotional.

I had wrote this on that Sunday:

I miss my family

“I miss them so much.

I know that I’ll see them again in eternity, but not seeing them now hurts.

Father, this is devastating. My soul longs for its familiarity and love of home.

I will need to rely on your strength today, I will need it for the rest of my life, but today I need your comforter more than ever.

I need time to be with you in peace. To not think about what could be or what I don’t have.

But I miss my family.

And I need my (heavenly) Fathers comfort.

Thank you for loving me, for being my dad, for being with me in the lowest valleys and highest peaks.

I need you now God. Oh how I need you.”

I was sad. But I quickly realized that this sadness was ok to feel, but it was not ok for that “feeling” to rule my life and how I lived. So I made it a point to talk with God about my feelings and proceed to see what the Bible said about them.

When my Gensend team left it felt surreal because I walked the girls out the house and to their Ubers, and the thought that I wouldn’t get to say goodbye to them made me depressed. After they had all left I Uber-ed myself to the home I was staying in, it was the house of an elder and his wife from COAH, they are the sweetest couple, I had my own room and my own bathroom, it was amazing! -especially since for the past eight weeks I had been on a bunk bed trundle situation and in the room with three other girls also sharing a bathroom with them- to have my own anything was a luxury! I unpacked and quickly realized the house was dead silent. Turning on my little fan for air circulation and noise I was still very aware of how quiet it was, so I turned on Gilmore Girls, and it was like I was at home with my momma, I slept for four hours.

I had also started working at the Well on State street that week, I worked three days then and by the end of the week I was accustomed the procedures of closing and how to make most iced coffees\drinks. Excited to have a job again, the idea of being idle was scary, because how would I fill my time? I had already started reading again, and in three weeks I had read three books, having lots of spare time and I didn’t want to spend it all on my phone; so naturally, reading it was. You’d be surprised how much you can read on a crowded T.

And this was my summer, I have decided I will post more often on here because I was getting tired typing seven separate texts to friends and family about what I was up to.

Thank you if you read this far!

God bless!!!

~Fiona Neely