City Reformed

Well, this weekend was good - Brad and I (and the dogs) went hiking in Laurel Hill State Park, as seen in the picture above, and on Sunday we visited our first church - City Reformed Presbyterian.

I am excited to say that we think we have found our new church home. City Reformed was a breath of fresh air - wonderful worship, solid bible teaching, young people everywhere. And, the church is only three miles from home.

The vision of the church is exciting - they are located in the heart of the city in order to minister to the people. One of the pastors was telling us that church attendance in Pittsburgh is extremely low - only a few evangelical churches exist in the East End (where we live) and the the largest one only has about 300 regular attendees. So, City Reformed was planted about 5 years ago in order to minister to this very unchurched area. They have campus outreach at both Carnegie Mellon and Pitt, and they have various ministries all throughout the city. Also, they have these cool forums on art and film and theology that the church holds in the community.

Brad and I hung around and met lots of people; everyone was very warm and welcoming, and we met quite a few people who live very close to us, which is nice. Also, we were invited to a few different community groups, so we're going to start visiting and getting to know people this week.

This Sunday was a blessing for both of us. Uprooting and moving to such a different place has been unnerving at times, but meeting part of the body of Christ in Pittsburgh gave us a sense of normalcy that we've been missing. And, having a time of worship and teaching was therapeutic.

Well, that's all the good updates I have for now. Later I'll tell you about our latest struggles: the dog down the street that barks all night, and the first day of half-marathon training in the hills of Pennsylvania. Ugh.