beth0329

I can't believe it's already April. This year is seriously going by way too fast. At the end of May I'll be graduating and then only a few more weeks after that I'll be moving out of the Pink House. Crazy. And then today was a flurry of future excitement. I heard from Andrew Marin, as I mentioned in my last post and then I met with Nick Jones from CareFresno this afternoon. There's an apartment in South East, the same apartments I've been interested in, that CareFresno has spoke to and their opening up a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment free to anyone who wants to do ministry there. I am so STOKED! God is soo good. I seriously have been meaning to look into this since October but continually put it off and instead of just leaving me in the dust, God just takes up the mantle and insures that I do His will. He seriously blows my mind! Now I am just really going to be praying about the folks at my church and their willingness to join me in this venture. Nick said that it would be good to have 2-3 volunteers each day of the week that I do the after school program. That seems like quite a few people and lots of commitment! Please join me in pray.

Oh, and guess what else! I may get paid to do this! CareFresno is partnering with AmeriCorp; I sadly am not completely understanding the program but it consists of the church investing money into Americorp and then them investing into a leader, that would be me! to learn under CareFresno and minister at the apartments. But, that is ultimately up to my church since their the ones who would be investing the money. A part of me doesn't think they'll do it because we're low on finances right now, but we shall see.

On Sunday morning I'm off to Catalina to study the book of Amos. Five folks from the PH will be there! That should be really fun. And it's just going to be really nice to get away again for a whole week. Away from the computer, cell phone, school, responsibilities and just be able to enjoy nature, friends and time much needed with God. Can't wait.

Oh yea, and my birthday was great. I'm so glad I was able to go up north. I think if I would have stayed in Modesto I would have been sorely disappointed, those folks didn't represent very well at all. Thankfully I got a phone call from Rosanna on the day of and some facebook messages but that's about it. But while up North I think I just really got some lovin that I needed. My mom and I arrived on Fri. night and just talked a little with Papa and Shelley and then went to bed. On Sat. we just chilled in the morning. I went on a short bike ride with papa and Albert, then my mom, Shelley, grandma and I went to a baby shower and that was fun. Then that night got to just enjoy spending time with the family watching a cute Disney film. And then woke up on my birthday to my most favorite breakfast made by Shelley; ham and potato casserole, plus homemade gravy and biscuits! Mmmmm. So delicious. And then had all the folks at church sing Happy Birthday to me and 2 others who had their birthdays near mine...then after church we invited everyone to one of my favorite restaurants in Redding, a Chinese buffet. Lots of people ended up coming with us which was really good. I just love spending time with people. If I could I'd seriouslygather up everybody I care about and have us all live near one another. I got a few gifts; a cute mug from Marilyn, The women of the bible from Carol, some money from Nancy and Dwight, a gift card from Borders from my mama, money from grandma and grandpa and then 2 books and a picture frame from papa and Shelley, plus some amazing cards full of love. It was just a great birthday weekend with the people I truly care about the most (not to say I don't care about people outside of Northern CA, but these folks hold a really special place in my heart).

Okay, well I've rambled on for quite awhile and it's already 1 in the morning. So, i'm off to bed. Goodnight y'all.

Blessings.

I can't believe it's already at the end of March! Just this weekend I realized there's only a week till my birthday, that's crazy. My mom texted me this afternoon and asked for a birthday day...she was going to buy me a bike rack but once I totaled my car that wasn't an option anymore :( which I'm almost more bummed about not getting the bike rack than totaling my car. But, anyways I think I've decided not to ask for anything, but instead ask that any money she would have spent on me...for a bike rack or anything else, would be saved for a trip this summer. I am still praying and talking to some folks but I think I may go to Chicago to visit Andrew Marin at The Marin Foundation http://themarinfoundation.org/index001.htm
He builds bridges between the gay community and the church, not be forcing change in either community, "but rather pushes the outer limits of comfort to foster true spiritual and religious growth." I first heard Andrew at CCDA in a seminar about building bridges and actually spent some time talking one-on-one with him, then once I got home I found him on facebook and began reading his blog. I really appreciate what he tries to foster and his views are refreshing and interest me. So, I've already facedbook'ed him a couple of times and emailed him...I also have a number and I'm not afraid to use it! :) But, I'll wait a few days to see if he contacts me.
Let's see...what else has been goin on...This weekend was the mini-CCDA. We had two speakers come in for 2 days to talk with us about urban ministry. Glen Kehrein, from Chicago and Craig Wong from S.F. They spoke on the biblical basis of community development and transformational leadership. It was good. It was also nice just seeing how far we've come in transforming our city.
Amy and I left the session right after lunch on Saturday. I had to work on an on-line exam, which sucked but once I finished that I hopped on my bike. It was a super beautiful day! I rode all over down town and did some praying, just enjoying the beautiful weather and then I stopped at the park near the FAX depot. I found myself a bench and pulled out the great book that I've mentioned I'm reading. I can't wait to write down some of my thoughts once I'm finished with it on here. Then I headed back to the house and decided that I really wanted to go to the Revue, but didn't really want to go alone. Unfortunately the first couple of people I called weren't answering but I ended up going with Nancy and it was good. She was able to tell me about the part of the session that I missed and Noemi joined us later and we all chatted. Once we got back onto our bikes the beautiful weather had turned ominous, dark sky and cold wind.
But, it just sprinkled a little, which was good because at 8pm everyone met at the Pink House for Roof-Tops. I'll try to explain what RT is, but if you don't get it then don't worry about it. So, I'll explain it the way that Ivan (one of the main guys who thought the idea up) explained it to me. There's three churches, A B and C. Let's say that A church is upper class, B is middle and C is lower. Young people (there could be older people as well, but let's face it the old people aren't going to be as willing to get out of their well-established boxes) begin going to RT, which is a concept. Instead of staying inside the 4 walls of a church, where there's probably community and people you'd call friends, but then once you leave that place you probably aren't really friends, in the sense that you're not calling one another to spend time together or anything. But, with Roof-tops we're trying to bring together people outside of the church but not to organize another church but instead to go back to your church and spread that kind of community and love amongst the people there. I can't really tell you what a normal RT night is like, they really allow the Spirit to move. My first time was last night. We had dinner at this chinese hole in the wall restaurant. We all put in $5 and the lady ended up with over $200 dollars and we had plenty of food...which was a great segue way into the talk on re-distrubution. Carlanda also shared some negro spirituals and their true meaning at the time they were written. It was great! And my friend Terron showed up which was pretty cool too.
Today was average. Went to church this morning, got a nice little nap in, cleaned up my room finally. yay! And went to re-locator's potluck tonight, plus ran a couple errands. And now back into the week!
Alright, it's taken me long enough to just write this...time for bed!

Today was such a good day. Lately I've been having really great days and I think that a part of it is because of the amazingly beautiful weather that we're having- just the right amount of sun per wind. Gorgeous. Today I woke up nice and early. Beth and I decided we needed some coffee so we got Starbucks and a donut and headed off for a lecture on affordable housing by the great Dr. Jill Shook. She came and spoke to the PH about the theology of housing yesterday night which was really good and her lecture this morning was about affordable housing models. I bought her music which is examples of lots of different faiths and backgrounds and their models of affordable housing in their communities. I'm excited to read it because of the glimpses into some of them that she shared.

After the meeting Jazz (our FIFUL intern), Phil (direction of FIFUL), Beth, Jill and I all went out to lunch. It was really good and Jazz and I had a great conversation about homosexuality and Christianity. Her brother is homosexual so she had great personal insight. And it was cool getting to talk more 1-on-1 with Jill, she's really brilliant and has a lot of experience and amazing stories to tell. Then Beth and I drove back to the house and I hopped onto my bike and went to Amy's to get the truck. It's become like common property. I probably drive it more often than she does. And went to work at ESA. Not overly productive but it was good and then off to my chiropractor. I'm definitely getting better..whoo hoo! But my shoulder blades are all knotted up and both the people who have given me massages have said it's caused by repetitive motion, like anything. But I've been given some exercises so hopefully it helps.

When I had picked up the truck Amy has said that she wouldn't be there if I dropped the car off and that she didn't really need it but after my appt. I really just wanted to get on my bike and ride. So, I stopped by her house, left the truck and took my bike on an hour ride through downtown. So, beautiful. I had the same feeling as I did on Monday night as I rode from one of the re-locator's house after having dinner with her at Denny's (which we walked to) and went to Amy's. I had this moment and had I dwelled on it, I really would have said that I am not moving to South East and I'm staying here in this community. I really realized how much I love this place and I am really really going to miss it once I move. ...Anyways, I took my bike back to Amy's house, drove her truck home and as I was walking up the drive way the little girls across the street (who have really befriended us) yelled hi and asked if I could ask their mom if they could play so I did and we ended up chatting for a little bit till Alissa came out and she painted their nails, then we "exercised" by running around the yard, skipping and playing hop-scotch. It was fun.

And now I'm finally writing a post and am headed to bed to read the amazing book that I'm reading right now.

Blessings

Today was the last day of instruction. Finals next and the semester is over. I only have three finals and the 2 big ones are on Thursday so I'll have plenty of time to study. 

Last night was really good! I had actually been invited by a couple of friends to go watch a movie at 9 but when Candy and I went to dinner we just really started having a great conversation. Lately, really most of the semester we've just really been feeling weird. And for some reason this past week has been particularly weird. I really don't know why. But anyways, I told my friends I'd take a raincheck and Candy and I headed down to the Tower District. I've been wanting to take some pictures so we brought my camera and took lots of pictures. The Tower District looks really beautiful at night so we got some really really good pictures. And, of course we headed over to Teazers for tea! Soo good. But it was pretty crowded so we headed over to Dennys afterward and neither of us had our cellphones, we were assuming it was 11-ish and of course once we get into a Dennys we know there'll be lots of talking. We didn't get back to the dorm till almost 2 am!! But we really enjoyed ourselves and just talked about whatever came to our minds. It was good.

I have a little promo here for a friend's blog. You should all check it out...http://www.bigmonster.net/Spirits
I believe I met Mark either in my first year of college or perhaps my senior year of highschool. We met online, in some chat room. I would consider us pretty good friends, we've had some interesting conversations and we've had lulls where we haven't talked for awhile but lately it seems like we've been talking a lot, which has been good. I've really been enjoying it. Anyways, he's always had this personal website where he writes his thoughts about action figures, relationships and life but for some reason this week he decided to make a blog that's only about his faith. I really like it because sometimes it seemed like I never really knew when he was being serious on his personal site. He's a funny guy so sometimes it just seems like he writes whatever comes to his mind but in this new blog about his faith it seems much more personal and serious. So, definitely check it out and comment on his entries. Plus, he added a link on it to my LJ, which I thought was pretty cool :)

Alright, I think it's bed time now.

Blessings