The End of an Era

Nicole and I had no idea how much our lives would be changed the day we hauled the trailer full of our stuff into the Joshua Station parking lot. We had celebrated our one year wedding anniversary only three weeks before that day. Our idealism, spurred on largely by the works of Shane Claiborne, had swept us into the city of Denver with big dreams of how we were going to be a part of this revolution of love that everyone in our circle was talking about. "Denver will be our home for the next 3-5 years". That was an exact quote from both of us. That day was 8 years, one dog, 2 children this side of heaven, the loss of one of our parents, the purchasing of one house, and too many friendships to count, ago.

I have been documenting this journey, offering reflections along the way. This effort has always (at least nearly always...like 7 years and 10 months give or take a few hours) been called 8th & Wyandot. The name simply comes from the closest intersection to Joshua Station. If you want to take a trip down memory lane with us, or if you have never read a single one of my reflections and you want to get a sense for what this journey has been like, you can find the whole archive HERE.

Last month I had a meeting with Amy (Director of Joshua Station) and Jeff (Executive Director of Mile High Ministries). Through genuine tears, Amy informed me that Joshua Station's budget would no longer be able to continue providing for my position after this fiscal year (June 30). This place. The place were Daniel schooled me in basketball, Juan schooled me in FIFA '09, Karen invited us into debate after debate about white privilege (she eventually won that, by the way), Diana introduced Nicole to the pampering experience of a manicure on Federal, we ate our first Tamale, and I first heard my wife utter the words "I'm Pregnant!" This place that has been our "home base" in Denver for 8 years. This place will no longer be "my place".

This week has been hard. It has also been beautiful. Gifts from co-workers and JS families have reminded me of just how grateful I am for this little expression of light in our city. Parties have reminded me of how much I will miss seeing these people everyday. Meetings have reminded me of the necessary and difficult work that must continue after I am gone.

I will miss Joshua Station more than I could adequately express in this one blog. I have decided to share pictures of our first week and my last day at Joshua Station. Just know that packed into these pictures are so many memories, emotions, and gifts. Perhaps we could unpack some of that in a conversation. But for today, the pictures will have to be enough.

These are the pictures we took of our JS apartment the first week after we moved in sometime in May 2009.

This is the picture I took today of that same view. Things have certainly changed. Most notably, Daniel is no longer on that court with his basketball.