Westport, Missouri

Today I am feeling a little "verklempt" what with watching what is hopefully the end-game in Ivory Coast (See news here: BBC and France 24) Please pray that as this can play out in Abidjan without massive bloodshed. I have heard from many Ivorian colleagues there who need our prayers.

So rather than deeper thoughts, I will try and paint a picture of the corner of Kansas City, Missouri where I am hanging out. The 24-7 Boiler room community is just a few blocks over from historic Westport.

Westport is a trendy place with old converted brick buildings -  think: Bricktown OKC without the canal and a bit more raw and unfiltered. As one walks, you encounter art studios, comic book stores, vintage clothing stores, pubs, old theaters, gay establishments, new age stores, used bookstores and LOTS of ethnic restaurants - still need to try out the Indian, Thai, Moroccan, and Jerusalem places. There is one African grocery store, which true to form has Maggi cubes, VIMTO soda and no way to make change for a twenty.

Westport is also home to lots of great coffee shops like the Broadway Cafe where I actually went and hung out today with folks from the Boiler Room. We played a few hands of rummy (and I was proudly in last place) and then some went off to work and others hung around. One used the space to work on a delightful watercolor for a children's book she is illustrating. A few others hung around and read, as did I.

Nearby there is also a cool tea place, teadrops, where I purchased some wonderful loose tea: cranberry black tea (which has whole dried cranberries and raspberries) and Rooibos Masala Chai. Note to self: send a bag of this to your sister!

Obviously one runs into "hipsters" in their "skinny jeans and glasses" in Westport. (Thanks to Anna, who used these descriptive and funny terms as we prayed last night for the various demographics of Kansas City.) There are also homeless and working poor, paid security folks in red outfits riding bikes and segways, and lots of cyclists as well (a likely subgroup of the hipsters).

 An interesting, an not irrelevant historical fact is that Westport was once the "western-most point of American Civilization". See historical plaque below that details the founding of Westport in 1833. From this place, the Oregon and Santa Fe and California trails went westward. It was a place where wagon trains were supplied and sent out. Traders, trappers, missionaries, gold prospectors - all based here and went out, perhaps coming back for refreshing and being outfitted once again.

The Celtic monastic tradition speaks of "thin places" where heaven and earth come close, a spiritual place where God's favor rests. Of course, God is everywhere and we can meet with him here in front of our computer screens or whereer, yet it seems that sometimes there are places where people have prayed in the past, where significant things have happened, which set a sort of spiritual tone for a place.

In line with this spiritual heritage, The Boiler Room folks see the Westport area as one where people will be fortified, rested up and trained to be sent out for the gospel, just as people were sent from here historical in a different way.
They do not see their community as one where people will come and STAY long-term, but rather one that is sending. In fact, later this month there are groups going out to Macedonia and China.
It is interesting to me that this vision includes people coming here to be restored and sent back out, which obviously fits in nicely with my sabbatical idea.