gilead

12 years we've lived in our home. i believe this is a comprehensive list of the people who have lived with us over the years. i've been working on this list for a few weeks and it seems like every time i come back to it, i remember someone new. it's pretty long! as you can see, there are a few people of whom i can't even remember their names. those were the early, heady, sleep deprived days when we thought we could be shepherds to sweet little misguided sheep. we didn't realize that the sheep had fangs.

we were lied to, cheated on, stolen from, and used.

i still miss those days, sometimes. i learned that you cannot trust a using drug addict... it's not even fair to them to believe their lies. i learned that if a person is a pathological liar, becoming a christian will not automatically change that little problem. i learned that you should always check an alibi. i learned that people you've loved may turn on you, but you can keep loving them anyway. i learned that it's good for people to pay their own way, even if they don't have to pay much.

i learned that if you call the police and say, "i think someone who lives with me brought some stolen stuff to my house," they will come and pick it up, even if the stealer has dismantled the minibike that someone "gave" him in the hopes that he could put it back together and make it even faster than before. i do believe i laughed as the police escorted boxes of minibike parts out of our house to return to the rightful owner.

you just have to laugh sometimes, no? i suppose the steal-ee didn't laugh much.

we've lived with troubled teens, a burnt out missionary, babies, family members, people who were hurting, a widow, a widower, college students who needed a cheap place to live, average type people who wanted to give living in community a try, and folks who just needed a place to stay where people wouldn't throw things at them.

since rob has done the pastor thing full time, we've toned down on our guest list. it is at a very manageable four these days, and they all have their own bathroom and kitchen area. i love the people we live with, and our home feels much more peaceful these days, but sometimes i still miss the days when i felt i had to pray for our safety.

i think i might need to write more about our home, and why we called it gilead (though we don't use that much, officially, just like i don't use wikkerink much, officially) over the next few weeks. i'll do it in honour of our 12th anniversary of life here in old st. boniface.

so here they are, in a sort-of order of appearance:

kemi
paul and sherry, and amber
richard
brent
can't remember his name the crazy guy we had to kick out
vince
foster boy
jo
bryan
jo again, and paul
monique
eddy
kathryn
sandi
gerry
chantal
ryan
erik and karen, and carmen
jo and paul
val 1 and tracy
val
corrie and pam
chantal and dave
george and yvonne, nicholas, thomas and chelsea
pam (again) and don