Baptism 2010

Karri Walker and Amy Kulbok

Teresa and Michael Stewart

 These photos are priceless.  Not pictured is Matt Shaughnessy baptizing Adam Philips.  Apparently we started so quickly it caught our photographer off guard.  If anyone has a photo of Adam getting dunked... I'd love to have it.

Nels and Ethan Hofert

Adam Philips baptizing Zeb Gillette

Chrisi and Rob Anderson

Taryn Hofert Baptizing Lindsey Pryor

Teresa Stewart Baptizing Debra Alexander

Scott and Taryn baptizing their son Colson Hofert

Fredy Villa Baptizing Cheale Kung

Cheale Kung Baptizing her daughter Sydney

Bringin Mez Back.... The finale!

It's been a long time since I've posted an entry.  With the adoption of Mez, blogging has been the last thing on my mind.  I am hopeful to get back to a more consistent rhythm in the coming weeks.  Until then, here is a video tribute to all of those who made our adoption a reality.  God has truly been good to our family through the people of our community as well as friends and families abroad.  Thanks.


Bringin Mez Back from Matt O'Neil on Vimeo.

The Wait is Over... We leave on the 1st

In case you haven't heard, we have officially been cleared to leave for Ethiopia on September 1st to pick up the latest edition to the O'Neil tribe.  Mezgana Tesfaye O'Neil, (Mez) will meet his new mom and dad hopefully by the 2nd or 3rd of September.  Our trip to Ethiopia will be a blistering 9 days total putting us back here in Charlotte on the 10th of September sometime in the evening.  I want to thank all of you who have been praying for us since we announced this decision to adopt for a third time 7 months ago.  I also want to thank those of you who have financially contributed to this event.  Because of your generosity, we cleared over $3,500 towards the $20,000 it will take to make this happen.

There is so much happening in regards to Watershed these days.  More and more we are finding traction in areas of spiritual formation, justice and community.  Our being "transformed to the image of Jesus," is happening, slowly but surely in the lives of individuals as well as our community at large.  As we leave our community for a brief two weeks to retrieve Mez, I wanted to make sure this incredible development for our family does not overshadow the beauty and importance of  the larger community and mission of Watershed.

For so many of you, you are on the edge of chasing after new questions, new turning points and new opportunities in the life God is inviting you to pursue through a will and heart surrendered to Jesus.  May the weeks and months ahead find you more and more resolved to this pursuit.

For others here at Watershed, you are overflowing with the benefit and blessing of God's movement in your life.  Because you have invited Jesus into the best and the worst of your life and he's responded, you are more alive, more certain and more full of love than you ever thought possible.  It's time for you to take what you've been blessed with and begin leaking it into the lives of those who are just beginning to wake up to this same movement in their own life.

Our lives and community is laden with potential.  In the way we search after God, in the rhythms of our quiet moments alone, in the way we connect to God through a life of wrestling with the scriptures, in the manner and frequency we love, defend and serve those who are hurting, may God begin to unleash his redemptive, healing and salvific force into a broken and lost world.  

Have a great weekend.

Miller's Debut!

If you were out of town this past Sunday for Transit, you missed a real treat. Scott Hofert and I have owned the speaking in Transit since Watershed's inception in 2005.  It's a convenient arrangement in that we get adequate time in between talks to breath and recharge.  However, a couple of months back, knowing that Scott Hofert would be on vacation this weekend, we felt like the timing was perfect to have Scott Miller, pastor of Justice and Mercy, carry the speaking load for a weekend.  I was so proud of my fellow teammate.  He's such a gifted guy on so many fronts and it was so fulfilling watching him do such an amazing job.  


Scott spoke on what he called, "Untamed Love".  In his talk he referenced the way Jesus was reckless in his capacity to love others and how he was always inviting his disciples to embrace a love that was willing to move towards personal risk.  He did such a wonderful job of challenging our community to live "wastefully" in the way we love each other and those around us who are hurting and broken.  I loved his talk.  Not just because it was done so well, but because Scott's beliefs about love are more than just words.  He and his wife Kendra live with this as their disposition in the every day rhythms of their life.


Both he and Kendra moved here to Charlotte 4 years ago because they had their sights set on living their life this way.  The left a secure, comfortable and familiar life with stable jobs, income and a sense of community to chase after the sort of LOVE that he described in his talk.  They chose Charlotte because they sensed being connected to Watershed and this city would allow them to discover greater ways to love in ways that are lined with greater risk.  


Did you catch that?  They didn't move because they had a job waiting or felt like Charlotte was a better city in which to live.  They just came and trusted that in their life with Christ they would figure things out.  And they did.  Both eventually found jobs and both of them began pouring into people and falling in love with our community and city.  That in itself is a great story.  But then, as their heart began to expand, they found themselves compelled to move toward living in a marginalized part of the city.  So they sold their home in the suburbs and moved to the Belmont neighborhood just around the corner from Center Stage where they've lived ever since.  


Much like Becky and Tony, whom Scott described in his talk, they have embraced a way of life that is inclusive of loving their neighbors.  Literally, they've made friendships, discovered a sense of community and ownership for the neighborhood where they live.  This is in spite of dealing with all the challenges of living someplace where there is a higher degree of crime, poverty and risk.  To listen to Scott and Kendra though, what many people would define as dangerous and risky, they would affectionately describe as an opportunity.  The opportunities to love in situations when there is no definable reason to love is the very essence of what the gospel is all about.  To live in a place where this potential exists on so many fronts, gives them the opportunity to trust Christ and love others in ways they could never have imagined in the world they left behind.  It also creates the opportunity for the rest as observers, to take notice of who they are, who they are becoming and how they are living their life.  The end result, I would surmise, is their life inspiring ours.  Their life compelling us to become the sort of people who have the capacity to love in the same manner in our own life.


So while Scott's talk was really, really good.  I just felt compelled to convey that his words, at least for me,.... carried a tremendous amount of weight given that how he lives reflects deeply what he believes is true about his life connected to God through Jesus.  May we all live this way more and more as the gospel seeks to transform more than just our belief's.  For it seeks to transform the very essence and the very core of who we are.

Story, Transformation and Community

Each summer I am floored by the videos that are produced for our summer movie series at Freedom Park, Movies in the Park.  Taryn Hofert and her team continue to lead the way in creatively storying the transformation of lives within our community here at Watershed.  A huge thanks to all those who made this possible.  Also, a special thanks to Larrisa Miller whose editing and direction helped bring this project to it's peak.  Check out some of her other brilliant creations at http://www.vimeo.com/larissamiller.  And join us a week from Friday on the 9th of July for our next Movies in the Park.

Watershed's 2010 video from Watershed Charlotte on Vimeo.

Watershed's 2010 video from Watershed Charlotte on Vimeo.

Hope found in our Children

This is photograph taken one week prior to the first Sunday at Watershed.  It's without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures of all time of my daughter Jyoti (right), at age 5, with one of her BFFL's Emma Hofert (left), also age 5.  Our core team of 18 people, who helped start Watershed, had decided to meet at Actor's Theatre to practice a weekend prior to actually having a weekend at Actor's Theatre.  After it was all said and done, we gathered in the parking lot to pray and ask God to do something beyond our wildest expectations or imaginations.  (Wow!  Looking back I'm floored at the numerous ways he's answered this prayer over the past 6 years.)

The reason I chose this photo this morning was because of yesterday's Transit.  I was so moved by the entire morning at Watershed yesterday.  I always get emotional when I am reminded of the legacy we leave in our children the future they represent for our world.  I was overwhelmed with encouragement as I stood next to so many high-end parents and families on stage.  I was reminded of how much our community has developed in Green House, thanks to incredible leaders like Laura Barker and Scott Miller.  Not to mention the 50-plus volunteers that make this area jump and thrive.  I was reminded of the weight of fatherhood as I stood next to my fellow fathers/brothers in arms.  Realizing that we have come so far and have so much farther to go to become the dad's our kids desperately long for and need.

THEN... if it couldn't get any better, I was informed through the tear soaked voice of my wife that Emma and Ethan Hofert, (Nel's and Naomi's kids) spent the last month or so raising money through chores, car washes, etc, to help their friends, Jyoti and Sulley bring their new future brother Mez home to our family from Ethiopia this summer.  She described how they could NOT wait to get to Transit this Sunday to present the fruit of their labor as their gesture of support and solidarity for our family.  We've been overrun with generosity since starting this endeavor in January.  But I have to tell you, out of the several thousand dollars that have come in to be put towards the overwhelming $20,000 it takes to do this, the $75 that Ethan and Emma presented was the sweetest and most precious gift we'd yet received.


All of which brought me to this place of experiencing tremendous amounts of hope through the children of our community this past weekend.  In looking at the 16 brand new lives that (I hope) will grow up immersed in a transforming conversation about life, faith, love, justice, mercy and Jesus.  In standing with fellow fathers.  In standing next to brand new parents, ready to take on the daunting task of being the compass, provider, vision caster, leader and lover of their children, and in the beautiful and generous gesture of two children, coming along side of the friends they care for so much,.... there was so much hope, so much good news.  What a great day!

What truly lies at the center of who you are?

You ever feel like your going somewhere in life but you're not really sure where it is you are actually going?  This is how I've felt the past 15 years of my life.  I'm not complaining by any means.  The "who" of who I am these days is much different than the person I was 5, 10 and 15 years ago.  I'm constantly perplexed by my own personal evolutionary journey and honestly, for the first time ever, I think I'm actually enjoying it.  Granted, I don't like the reality of my body growing older and becoming less agile.  I'm not crazy about the lines in my face or the hair line that seems to be defiantly edging away from my forehead.  But I'm starting to become more at peace with what goes along with growing older.  For instance, I feel less pressure these days to impress others.  I'm starting to live more confidently in what I think is true about everything from marriage, parenting, friendship, spirituality, humanity, God and service to him. 


I'm realizing a greater realm of wisdom too (I think.)  Not because I'm experienced or know more than the average bear, but because of the very opposite.  I'm realizing just how much I DON'T KNOW about all these areas I just referenced and more.  I guess, my world has expanded beyond the borders of my personal culture and relational environments enough to realize that beyond the horizon of my thinking and experience lies a huge ocean of others.  Other ideas, other circumstances, other tribes, other belief's and other people.  So to claim to have some sort of superior knowledge just seem really inauthentic and dishonest, to some degree, because there is so much that I continue to fully grasp in this life.  


Yet, while there is so much I don't understand, I think I'm fearing less.  (Note:  It's not that I'm fearless.  Although I wish that were true.  However, today more than a decade ago, I think there are less things I am afraid of and the the things I am afraid of I seem to be facing and pushing through the fear of them in spite of it all.)


Which brings me to the point of this rant.  I love how Paul critiques his own heart, mind, soul and life.  In some of his writings, he wrestles with his inability to live up to his own expectations in life.  He laments by just how far off the mark he misses when it come to who God insists he is.  He also insists that others should follow him as he follows Christ.  It sounds absurd and a little arrogant to tell huge swaths of people that your the guy to follow.  But Paul does this without apology yet only within the context of Jesus' involvement and influence in his life.  


Paul realizes, (I think) that anything about himself worth replicating, considering or emulating in his life is only from the perspective of how Jesus has radically and comprehensively impacted and transformed his life.  I think that's why Paul is constantly point back to Jesus and his work on the cross.  Paul knows his life is alive only because a resurrected Jesus has allowed it to be so.  


This current series, The Desires of the Heart, asks a ton of hard and necessary questions about how a person's desires have or have not been met throughout their life.  It suggests that who we are is directly related to this dynamic within ourselves.  In Jesus, Paul begins to discover his TRUE SELF.  In Jesus, Paul begins to see unnoticed and uncultivated potential sprouting and growing into something unique, outrageous and alive inside himself.  In Jesus he sees himself beyond the limitations his own humanity.  In Jesus, Paul's longings and desires seem to find a place they can call home.


This is what I personally want for my own life.  I know I have desires and longings that are met and unmet on a multitude of fronts.  But when it all fleshes out, I want this Jesus at the center of my life.  For its there, with him, I'm convinced that "Who I truly am", can be discovered, healed, developed and purposed throughout my life in ways that these earthly eyes are still trying to see.  I wonder what lies at the center of your life?  Or maybe the better question, "Who is at the center of your life?" 

Bringin Mez Back! This was shocking!

For many of you, you are fully aware of my families decision this past January to adopt into our tribe a third son/brother from Ethiopia. His name is Mez, he's 5 years old and he's from Ethiopia. This past weekend during Transit, we were blindsided with one of the most generous and thoughtful gestures our family has received since arriving here in Charlotte in 2005. For the past several months, Taryn Hofert has been covertly putting together a campaign to help generate resources to offset the $20,000 it's going to take to bring our adoption in for a landing.

This is the third time we've adopted and God seems to always creatively generate enough resources to see these endeavors through. Paying for them have NEVER made sense on paper. Yet when it's all said and done, it just happens. I have been praying like crazy for the past 6 months asking God for direction on how we can generate enough resources to make this become a reality. And so on Sunday morning when the video below started playing and I realized I had been tricked, that this WASN'T a greenhouse promo video, I couldn't help but think how God seems to delight in surprises. Words like shocked, floored, humbled, moved, inspired, appreciative, loved and awe struck, can't even begin to describe how we felt. I was nearly speechless. I think I've watched this video about 10 times since yesterday. Each time, I vacillate from laughing hysterically at things I didn't notice before to being moved by the warmth and generous gestures of so many friends.

So on behalf of the O'Neil tribe, I want to thank Taryn and her entourage for the hours of hard work and passion they put into this project. Thanks Larissa for shooting and editing the video. Thanks Cheale for the sweet graphics and the kick butt website. (www.bringinmezback.com) To Matt, Billy, Jessie, Rachelle, Tracy, Joya, Brittany, Lindsey and Ryan, thanks for dancing and and acting silly on our behalf. I'd like to think that as much as this video and project were committed to helping us do something really incredible in bringing our future son home, I'd like to think this is also just one more meaningful expression of this communities passion to dance and celebrate the life we all continue to discover together in Jesus. I think God laughed and celebrated along with us this Sunday. Especially at you Taryn Hofert on the keyboards. God definitely split a side on that one!

Thanks again to you guys and all those who bought t-shirts this Sunday. If you were not at Transit and you'd like to be a part of TEAM MEZ and purchase a T-Shirt, check out (www.bringinmezback.com). In the meantime, check this out. You'll split a side laughing.

A Beautiful Community

Wow! I ran across this video in my tool bar in my browser. It's Watershed's 3rd Anniversary Video. I was reminded of the beauty of this community. I received a phone call from Oscar a several months back from somewhere in Tennessee. Oscar is the gentleman getting baptized in the video at the beginning. He called to make sure our community knew he had completed 6 months of rehab and had been sober for close to 8 months. He wanted to make sure Tim Abare knew the impact he had on his life. Blair Miller continues to be a close friend and has embraced Jesus in his life. Julie Walker, and her husband Kevin are in Korea picking up Elliot, their second child and internationally adopted son. They return next week. Their family has been a part of Watershed since day one. Kayla George and her husband Jonathan are preparing to return from Malawi after spending the past year there working in areas of poverty and education. Sal Rando, the first person we met when we moved to Charlotte, He, his wife April and their family continue to be a part of Watershed. I saw Sal this week at Tom Rogers wake. He and his family have been impacted deeply by the relationships of this community. Just ask him about it.

I love this community and what God continues to do in so many lives. And I look forward to the days ahead as the stories increase and the mercy, justice and love of God's kingdom continues to expand in and through Watershed.

Girls on the Run and Movies in the Park

I've been meaning to post this all week. Jyoti and I ran our first road race together this past weekend. The Girls on the Run, Run/Walk event was incredible. It was so inspiring to see so many adults volunteering their time to pull this off. Watershed provided 60 total volunteers and it was a privilege to do so. What was really inspiring though was the numerous teams of young girls who were running together with their GOTR mentor. For several months, these mentors have been pouring into the lives of many of these young girls. Every child needs someone who will believes in them, affirms them, validate them and love them. This is what GOTR is all about and it was breath taking to see so many adults committed to being this type of voice in the life of these beautiful young ladies. I look forward to our community continuing to be a part of this in the future. Kudos to Racheal Shaughnessy, Jess Surles, and Rachelle Chretien who are mentors in this program at local schools AND... a part of the Watershed nation! I think there may be others from Watershed who are do this as well. If I missed someone KUDOS to you as well.

One more thing. This Friday night is the summer's first Movies in the Park. Hope you can make it out! Click the Movies in the Park link to find out the movie for the night and any other details.