Pittsburgh, PA

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We drove through Ohio with no time to stop at Columbus to see the Santa Maria replica as hoped. We arrived in Pittsburgh, winding through construction, to find our friends' home in a challenging urban neighborhood. These special friends are very dear to us since our friendship began when they were leaders in our youth group. They were soon married and began a family; a few years later we followed their pattern. They have always had a heart for ministry and subsequent years have found them doing campus ministry at U. of Pittsburgh. Several years later we heard that they were building a house in the neighborhood where they now live and joining an intentional community of Christians who are choosing to live there and be the salt and light of Jesus to the surrounding community. More recently they were living and working in Haiti and returned to their home last year. We had a lot to catch up on, and enjoyed doing so while working alongside them in the kitchen or at a housing rehab project. Their girls took ours under wing and introduced her to their guinea pigs, Barbies, and yard. Their oldest boy invited ours to a friend's birthday party at a park where they had Nerf wars. Meanwhile the younger boys got along great, even sharing the same favorite color and empathizing with each others' knee injuries.

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