Well, it all started on a very hot Saturday afternoon at the Kansas City Boiler Room in Kansas City, MO, in a very hot building with fans that moved the very hot air in all directions... and, with a few opening remarks and words of welcome, a few pizza slices and friendly conversations, 24-7 Transit '05-'06 officially had its lift-off! Let the games begin! Fifteen students from all over the place joined us for - from Wales, Germany and England, to California, New York, Oklahoma and Chicago.

Here is what we are talking about: Transit is ‘a way of life’ that operates as a training community for nine months… The year is based around three core loves: Loving God (Being True to Christ), Loving Each Other (Kind to all men), and Loving those who don’t know Jesus (Gospel to the Nations).  We dive into each of these values for roughly three months each, exploring them through scripture, book reading, study, teaching, and primarily, through experience.  Our heart is to be strong in the classroom but even stronger in the city and the community around us, learning to develop lifestyles that simply look like Jesus.  We are really just stumbling our way along, trying to follow the God we’ve seen in glimpses, aligning our hearts with whatever it is He’s dreaming up in our part of His Story.

 

The God Story:  We are taking these 9 months to read through the Bible, focusing on the storyline as it unfolds from the beginning up to us today in 2006, with God as the Author and Main Character.

The fall semester was exciting – we sought out what it means to Love God, and then we stepped into what it looks like to love one another out of that confidence…such simple but profound concepts!  Our quest took us south to the Houston Astrodome to help in Hurricane Katrina relief and north to Madison, Wisconsin, to emerge ourselves in like-hearted community.  The search has led us to new family…from brothering underprivileged kids living in the inner city to befriending immigrants in the Kansas City area, not to mention each other and the joys (ohhhh the joys) of life in community.  We have read 9 or 10 books by now, waded through plenty of teaching, and trekked through the entire Old Testament in story form.  We have fought both with and for one other, watching in awe at the molding of the Holy Spirit in us all the while.  It has not been easy...discipleship has definitely not come without a cost…but, there is a sense of both adventure and change in each of us and in us as a whole. 

 

Here are a few notable 'moments' in the first few months of Transit…

In 'God Story' at the moment, we are getting into the Gospels and the Life of Jesus.  We are also busy building a Prayer Room - walls and all! We feel that this is not just a practical act of building, but also an establishment of God's presence among us and a spiritual building of a space for Him in all we are and do.

These past months have been a learning and growing experience for all of us. We long to live a way of life centered around the core values of loving God, loving each other, and loving the World. It's been fun, it's been stretching, it's been intense and powerful, and we're looking forward to see what God will do in the next few months of 24-7 Transit '05-'06!