Nichole Parke: This is My Neighboring Story

 

My name is Nichole Parke, and this is my neighboring story. (See video on Vimeo here).

Probably seven years ago, God started talking to me about how I could maybe get to know our neighbors. I reached out to people that I know that had done that in their own communities, or had built good relationships with their neighbors. One of them said that they just did a block party one day, they planned a barbecue and invited people to come. So I thought, "Well, I could do that."

I started off by organizing an ice cream social. Had a really good turnout, it was a great time. Got to know some of the people we hadn't met, and reconnect with people that we had met, and it was a good time. I thought, "Oh, this is fun. This is the start of something." Then like life gets sometimes, I got busy and I get tired and take on more responsibilities with my job or running my kids around, and I stopped trying to be intentional with it. 

I thought for a long time that it should just be effortless and I wouldn't have to work at it, or people would reach out to me, but I don't really think that's always the case.

The neighboring of recent started with my husband, Jason. He took up some hobbies being at home, like a lot of people did in COVID. One of those was just being in the yard all the time. Through him working in the yard, he actually connected with different people in the neighborhood and got to know them by name and we've been over to some of their houses for dinner. That reconnected my desire, really, to start thinking about neighboring.

I teach in a school, and some opportunities that are happening within my school to even broaden what it means to be a neighbor, not just in my home but also in my workplace, and the people that I'm seeing there. I've really been thinking a lot about this, and how I can be a better neighbor in my home community, but also where I work and where I go every day. 

I think through that, God's just really been starting to stir some things in my own heart.

Whether or not we know it, God's always working behind the scenes and it's been super cool here in the last month because I'm starting to see that all come together. Where the things that maybe I've wanted in our neighborhood, I thought maybe was never going to happen. Really, I just think it's God's timing and God teaching me and calling me to rise up.

I think one thing that I would want to encourage people with, is that neighboring is something that we are all called to do. It's easy to think somebody else is going to step up and be the neighbor, or somebody's going to reach out to you or that eventually, you'll just happen to walk by and meet your neighbors and become great friends. I just don't think relationships happen that way. 

I think relationships are intentional and neighboring is the same way.

Sometimes it does mean we have to go out of our comfort zone and not just come home and shut our garage door and watch TV, like a lot of us would like to do, myself included. 

We are all called to neighbor. It's actually one of the commands that Christ gave us, and it is actually really one of the easiest things to do when you think about the proximity of the people that you're around.

That would be my encouragement, or my challenge, like I've been challenged, is just to pray about it and maybe to allow God to do the work because it is something that we're all, I think, called to do. 

If we're called to do it, I think he will equip us to it.