by Katie Guy

It has been a new experience to live with a group of people and to have the specific intentionality that we have living together.  At the beginning of our service year we came up with a Rule of Life that organized our intentions for the year.  I’ve always been someone that appreciated honesty from the beginning and no beating around the bush.  I loved that we were able to start our year together thinking about ways that we could grow and learn together.

Living together has also helped me to see how similar we are when we give each other the chance to get to know each other.  When we get down to the heart of it my roommates and I are all 20 somethings that are searching for more meaning, for that purpose and for that sense of belonging.  When I was going through my undergrad at Ohio State I was looking for purpose, but in a more specific way.  I was searching for my purpose through a job title, not through my relationship with God.

I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of different people over my time in Franklinton and what I have come to learn is that no matter where we come from we all face the same fundamental questions and longings.  Jerry that loves to walk, Bruce that hitchhiked a crossed America and Sharon who mows lawns in the neighborhood.  We are all children of God and we long to be in fellowship with Him, in whatever way that may look like.  For Jerry it may be sharing a walk and conversation with a friend.  Bruce seeks fellowship with people by his positivity and kind spirit.  Sharon shows her love for God’s children through giving what little she has and making sure everyone is taken care of.  I see God in each of these people whether they recognize that or not.  I’ve learned to find the consistency of God in the people around me when my own future feels so unsure.  That consistency brings me so much peace, comfort and strength to keep dreaming and to not give up on what God has for me and the people around me.