For many years now, the Servants of the Word have organized so-called “Summer Households” in the various places where we have university outreaches. The idea is to invite students during their university break to live with us for a few weeks. This past summer, a number of them joined our Ann Arbor/Michigan household for 8 weeks of summer household. We interviewed two participants, Nathaniel Cherney and Timothy Blake, about their experience. Timothy is currently studying HVAC at Washtenaw Community College, Nathaniel is a psychology and Spanish student at the University of Michigan.
SW: So why did you decide to live with the brothers for eight weeks.
TB: Well, I suppose I didn’t have a lot of reason not to. I mean, I was in a student household during the year, so it was in some way a logical next step. I had moved into a student household because I did not like the lack of structure which my life had living at home. But there was a challenge: we already had a lease signed for the whole summer, so it would have been impossible to pay for rent twice; but UCO came to our rescue and raised some money for us to make it possible to live in summer household.
SW: What does it look like living with the brothers?
NC: It is a rather intense and rich common life. We prayed every morning together at 6am and night prayers most nights. During three weeknights we had dinner together, plus a longer dinner on Saturday night (The “Lord’s Day”- see below). At the start of the house I was not able to join them for prayer because my work started at 6am. But eventually God provided a grant so I could drop that part of my summer job.
SW: What surprised you the most moving in with the Servants of the Word?
TB: Definitely the worship. I think my whole life when I’ve prayed, I’ve been very much focusing on prayers such as “I’m sorry” and “Help me”. And while those are great prayers, they can be a bit self-focused. But the way that the brothers prayed every morning was that they were rejoicing, taking delight in God and literally just saying good things about Him, saying the truth about who he is: ”God, you are good. God, you are glorious. Thank you for loving me.” And that kind of transformed my prayer life. Now it brings me so much joy to just say that God is good.
SW: What was it like to move in with people you don’t know?
TB: I knew the students who were moving in, but yes, the S/W brothers I did not know well. That was a bit of a culture shock: all of a sudden, you know, the types of things we talk about would devolve less into craziness. There would be a lot more respectful and uplifting conversation and humor. And it was an adjustment to have only one conversation at the table.
SW: Were there any other challenges during the time?
TB: Between work and household life you end up being quite busy; so I did not get to see as much of my friends who were in town as I would have liked to. But those are the choices you have to make if you want to progress.
NC: I think the other hardest thing is just like getting along with everybody. You have to adapt to other personalities and different ways that people do things. And you have to learn to be patient with others.
SW: What were some of the high points from the time?
TB: one of them most definitely the Lord’s days (all of our SOS communities celebrated the “Lord’s Day”, a ceremony on Saturday night to welcome the Day of the Resurrection) were a huge high point. We always looked forward to them because it was a time where we just showed love for each other and honored each other and honored God, thanked God, and then also ate some really great food, especially the challah bread (Jewish Shabbat bread). They have a great challah recipe!
NC: I think one high point was one night when we had students over from the Lansing UCO chapter. They came on Saturday and we had a great Lord’s Day. Afterwards we were all in the living room, playing guitar and singing Spanish songs. Then we went to look around campus and had a little wrestling match on the grass. Yes, that was definitely the best night.
TB: I’d say everyone’s high point was when we went on a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; we found a really nice cabin on a cliff overlooking a river. We had really nice weather. There was a beautiful waterfall we were able to get behind it and then took our picture (enclosed). It was a great time.
SW: Do you have any other reflections about “Summer Household”?
TB: I was struck by the culture of how we use our speech: it is easy to make jokes about silly things. It might not be really serious, but it is simply not very upbuilding. So in the house we decided “We are not going to joke about these things!” So I experienced a more uplifting and joyful culture of speech which allows for a more vulnerable and true brotherhood. This was really beautiful and powerful.
Nathaniel and Timothy are now back in their student household for another year, serving the Lord in University Christian Outreach at the University of Michigan.
