Something I was thinking...

Sometimes when I am frustrated with my church here for being disengaged from the community, I realize that I would have the same problems with VCA (my home church) if I was doing Mission Year in Fall City. I'd want to ask the same questions I want to ask my church here. Why don't you live IN this neighborhood, instead of commuting? Why don't you know that this trailer park even exists? Why don't you invest economically in this area? Why do you drive past the empty houses and not move in? Do you not really care? Is your church on this block by coincedence?

Honestly I am pretty dissillusioned with the church, both here and at home in Washington. We try to follow the American Dream and get further and further away from poverty, when we should be trying to get closer and closer to it.

I am included in this.

January is almost over!

Well, it's been a good month so far.

Update:

Tara and Chris came to our rescue and our house is all fixed (except for a leak under the kitchen sink), we have a beautiful new furnace, and working pipes!

I almost threw up on Wednseday! Haha, that doesn't really deserve an exclamation point, but I like them. Anyway, I am better now, it was a very short lived illness.

On MLK day we got to march in the parade! It was fun and being in Atlanta gave it a lot more meaning for me than it has had in the past.

We are reading Jesus and The Disiniherited. It is very good. I think I want to learn more about black political thought and MLK's work and stuff.

I still have 18 dollars and the month is almost over!

I am hungry right now!

I like Mission Year!

The End.

no heat and broken pipes

So.... we got back to our house after a joyous reunion at the airport to find that it was about 20 degrees in there.... we decided we were probably tough enough to last a night and get it warmed up again, when we discovered that there was no running water either.... We drove to Jeffs house.

Now we are staying in a hotel. Hopefully on Saturday we will be able to move back in. They are installing a furnace I think. I'm not sure what they are doing about the burst pipe problem. And by they I mean Chris and Tara, the best program director + husband that there ever was. They are so nice to us, seriously. They arranged the hotel and stuff.

I wish we were in our house right now. It just feels like we are still in transition. I wanted to BE HOME when I got home, not be in a hotel and be cooking meals at the church. Oh well though.

Our hotel has a whirlpool.

And it's sabbath tonight.

And.... I love my team. Being back with them is great.

This is one of my favorite people, my little sister Janna. I kicked her butt at Lord of The Rings Risk last night and she was bitter. That's a true story. Yeah she is pretty awesome and I've spent everyday with her on break.

Love love love.

oh packing

How does it work that my suitcase much more stuffed, but lighter than it was when I got here?

I don't like packing. I am OCD and I have to have it done way before I leave. Last night I was getting ready for bed at like 11 after watching Star Trek with my family, and I decided that was the perfect time to compulsively clean my room and pack everything.

I'm excited to go back to Atlanta. See my team/family that I love so much. See Malfoy (my bear) that I somehow forgot to bring with me here. That was a tragedy. See the kids and Tara and the Family Life volunteers. And the other teams. Them too.

This break has been a really nice rest. Physically, mentally and emotionally. I love having nothing to do and just relaxing. That mission has been accomplished. Now it's back to real life!

Something I wrote in my journal a month or so ago..

Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

I think our church (In Atlanta) has given me a different perspective on some of the psalms that talk so much about suffering. They seem more relevant to the black church/any minority church than they are to a white suburban church like the one I grew up in. This culture is one of perseverance and endurance, looking back at a history of oppression and injustice. It is similar to the Israelites history, I mean, more similar than my white racial/cultural history is. I've learned about the identity people find in their race. I never really saw people or myself as being part of their/my collective racial group. This is something new for me.