September Goals Recap

We cannot believe it is October already! Where did September go? While it seemed to go by so fast, it truly has been a fruitful month!

At the end of each month, we will look back at the goals we set out for that month. The reason for this is two-fold. 1. We want to be accountable to you and our supporters. 2. This is an easy way to keep track of our progress and what we are doing here.

So, here are the goals we set out for September

Our Neighbourhood
- Get acquainted with out new neighbourhood
- Being making connection in our new area
- Find a café/pub to call our own (visit at least once a week)

Young Adults/Uni Students
- Attend orientation events for Edinburgh Uni and make connections with incoming students
- Help students get settled (cell phones, flats, figuring out the city, etc.)
- Attend Christian Union at least twice

Community Building
- Host bonfire/barbeque in Mid-September
- Look for social groups to join
- Begin our own social groups
- Begin building a pool of people who might be interested in joining our missional community

Mosaic Leadership
- Nic continue to meet with Mosaic Leadership
- Begin researching/reading more missional community books
- Determine how we fit with the leadership team and how we can best help

So….How did we do?

Our Neighbourhood
- We think we have done a great job connecting with people in our neighbourhood. 

- We have met a few people in our new complex and had a few conversations with them, but honestly we have had better connections with people outside of our complex. I think this is just due to the culture here. My colleague at work was telling me just today that Scots are very private people, who make sure their blinds are closed and doors are shut. It is hard to make connections with them unless there is a reason, such as being in a social group together.

- There is a church building right across from our flat that houses a charity for recycled furniture. We have spoken with them and they have agreed to let us clean up their grounds and plant a garden. Our goal for this project is simple: to bring beauty back into our neighbourhood. There is nothing in it for us, except maybe some exercise ;)

- We have found our pub—it is called the Harp and Castle. And it is only about 4-5 minutes’ walk from our flat. Nic is now attending poker night on Wednesday and has already made a few friends who have recognized him and talk to him outside of the pub while just walking around.

- Also, the people around our neighbour have started to recognize us, which is always good to identified as a local. We have really seemed to connect with the homeless guy who sits in front of the Scot-Mid (local grocery/convenience shop).He is really nice and now we just need to find out what we can do for him and how we can connect with him.

Young Adults/Uni Students
- We have not done as well with connecting with the University as a whole. Without Nic as a student, our connections with the University are more limited and can sometimes seem forced. We want our connections with people to be natural and organic, so we have to develop a new approach to connecting with students. However we have connected with one new student in particular who has become part of our Mosaic community and we have been spending a lot of time with her. She is now a part of Ashley’s Life Transformation Group, which meets weekly and will be a part of our missional community group as well. Nic has been able to help her a lot with school related questions, as he went through everything she is just one year ago.

Community Building
- We did not have a bonfire/barbeque, basically because we don’t have funds currently to get a grill or bonfire pit. However we improvised and had a pizza and movie night. It was a good low-key first chance to get together with a bunch of young adults. 

- As for social groups, Ashley is currently in one craft group, and looking to start a new one in November. She is currently brainstorming the structure of it and looking for a free venue.
- Nic has joined a poker group, which he will blog more about shortly. But basically there is a poker league around the city held at different pubs. The Harp and Castle (mentioned above) holds a Poker Night—Nic went to check it out last week and was so impressed with it and community that is built there.

- It has been encouraging the more and more people we meet who are interested in this different form of church. We gathered a group of about 8-10 young adults to be part of our missional community and are still adding.

Mosaic Leadership
- We are both on the teaching team for our Mosaic Gathering. We had our first meeting last night and it went well. We are going to have to be creative in the ways that we approach teaching and thinking out of the box, but we have a great team to work with. 

- Ashley is on the Creative team, which is in charge of planning creative events for our third Sunday gathering. The third Sunday will still go along with the theme the teaching team comes up with, but with just a different expression of it.

Other accomplishments/happenings in September
1. Nic had a two week trip to the USA for vision casting and fundraising.
2. We have moved flats, to our new neighbourhood in Leith
3. Nic was ordained at one of our Mosaic gatherings about two weeks ago.
4. Ashley has been starting to make more connections at work with her colleagues and trying to find ways to engage them in conversation and get to know them better.
5. We have 50% of our yearly budget raised/committed.
6. Ashley has found a new other social events/groups to take part in.

We will put up out October goals this week :)