On the road!

Roman and I have officially begun our journey - and our first stop is Austin, Texas! We're excited to meet up with our friends at Soulforce while we're in town, and to meet up with you if you're in the area as well. Send us an email, we'll be in town til the 19th.

Check out my video here as I talk about how excited I am:

Roman made one too so keep an eye out for his. And if you're interested in knowing more, or helping us out along the way, here's some more info about why we're doing this, and what we'll need:

Here are our goals for this trip:

- Recruit potential participants for our Discipleship Program
- Hear and document your stories to share with others on our website
- Gather financial support
- Enroll people to serve on our Support Team

At every place we go, we will need:

We'd love to hear from you - leave a comment here, send us an email, or give us a call!

what do we take with us?

packing up stuff - mostly just syringes and T and clothes.  That’s it really.  I’ll have my computer and camera, my glasses.  Journals. And that will be it.  Makes me wonder what we actually need to survive. And why we have so much stuff.

But a freegan rant for another time.

Going to the south for the first time ever, and part of me is nervous but overall i’m very excited. i was hoping to check out open mics down there if things work out and i’m wondering if stealthness will come into play. i have a problem keeping my mouth shut, so we’ll see how long it lasts and if it’s even necessary.

i feel fortunate that passing has come easy and i want to speak for those who are still struggling and/or do not have the opportunity.  not in a “i’m gonna speak for you” selfish kinda way, but in a “i will take your struggle with me so the world will be better for everyone.” kinda way.

But i wonder if people see me and read me as a presumably white, straight (in what universe?) male, if maybe the words i say may be easier to take, than if i were to deny those labels. because right now i identify as a spirit in a body, free of race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, gender. i am the same as everyone else, my body is just my body. until we realize we’re all the same nothing is going to improve.

but a zen rant for another time.

Having the ability to assimilate or go under cover has its advantages, i suppose.  i want to mirror whoever is in front of me. it’s natural to feel more at ease with people we identify with, if only we all could identify with EVERYBODY.   maybe it’s a pipe dream, but i’m too bored/frustrated with the way things are to think any different. either we’re all in this together or not, there is no in between.

this can be difficult as sometimes it’s hard to get on the same page as someone. i am reminded of the philadelphia gay pride parade when i had to be literally pulled away from someone who was protesting on the side (bullhorn and all) saying gays were child molesters just as the queers with kids contingent started marching down the street.

i assumed this person was probably hurt as a child and inadvertently taking it out on others by doing what they thought was helping, but even my mere suggestion that not everyone believes in the god this person was talking about set them off.

obviously i’m not going to be looking for any trouble, quite the opposite. and new york isn’t exactly free of racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, classism, xenophobia, etc. etc. because i guess no matter where you are everyone has bias, but all i can change is my own, so i guess going somewhere i know little about is a good place to start.

We Have a YouTube Channel!

You can now find us YouTube at youtube.com/SanctuaryCollective.  I will be creating videos from New York, Micah and Roman will be shooting footage during their Pilgrimage, and in the coming months, we hope to include video from young adults living and organizing in Christian communities all around the country.

Check out our inagural video:

Welcome to Our Blog

We want to give you a look inside of Sanctuary Collective and to create another avenue for collaboration.  We will be posting updates from our "main office" in New York, updates from our travels around the country, and importantly, we'll be letting others who are part of Sanctuary Collective add their voices to the mix.  Glad to have you with us!