Air show!

Bob got a hundred tickets to the air show in Indianapolis on Saturday, and he asked me to help chaperone the kids. The trip reminded me of my days in Atlanta, when we would accompany precocious kids in old school buses. We went to the air show for a few hours, and then we had a pizza party at a partner church that was less than a mile from the airfield. While we were eating lunch, we got to see a lot of WWII planes fly over, and a couple of F-18s showed up and did high-speed fly-bys. It was a fun and relaxing day. Here we are in front of an Indianapolis Police Department Jet Ranger:

In other news, I'm still thinking about buying a house. It seems like I could be much more involved in Bob's program if I lived closer to the action, and if I have my own place, I might be able to invite kids over to study and eat and chill (remember W's suggestion of a community center?). A lot of these guys don't have a safe place to go, and although my house can't provide for all of them, it might be handy in some situations. Bob suggested a neighborhood about a mile east of Brookside, and he offered to help me find a place. Bob is cool.

The folks at church have been very supportive as well. On Sunday, I talked to a guy named A, who is the urban outreach director at one of the churches that partners with mine, and he told me he'd help me get started. A has the eventual goal of moving to this area too, and I think he'll be a great friend. He told me that the superintendent of the Indianapolis school system said that every night there are 700 homeless teens in Indianapolis, and it's safe to assume that many of them live near Brookside. Maybe that's an opportunity? I can't bring homeless kids to my apartment now; it's 20 minutes away, my neighbor would freak out, and they'd probably break some rule about noise or maximum occupancy or other such nonsense. But a house is a major investment—a house in this neighborhood will cost at least twice as much as one in Brookside—and it's tough to dive in without having a specific plan on how it will be used.

Bob wasn't at church yesterday because he had to be in St. Louis to meet with supporters, but he called me afterward and said they were thinking about starting another program for young teens at 6-8pm. I can't participate in the after-school program because it meets from 3-6, but this just might work. I'll keep you posted...