After a Long Silence

It's been a long time since I have written a post--or even thought about my blog! Since the last time I wrote, I've spent two months in Thailand, changed addresses and roommates for the third time in 6 months, changed job positions, killed a cockroach in my sleep, and had a host of other adventures that I shalln't share here. ;)

My internship with Servant Partners is over but I will be sticking around Pasadena for the time being and continuing to volunteer with Northwest Neighbors, which means living in a low income neighborhood in NW Pasadena and coleading a Bible study for junior high and high school girls from the neighborhood. I am excited to see what God has for the girls and for us in this coming year.

This week we studied the story of Jonah, who runs away from God, gets thrown overboard in a storm, and then God sends a fish to swallow him and spit him up. We talked about second chances and is it fair when God pursues and redeems "bad" people. As I was driving two of the girls home that night, we passed a police car busting someone on their street. The girls immediately told me that we needed to pray and proceeded to do so, instructing me to keep my eyes open since I was driving! After we prayed that the policeman would do his job right, that the judge would make a wise decision, and that the person being arrested would meet God in the middle of his troubles, decide to change, and have a second chance, one of the girls turned to me wide-eyed and said, "It's just like we read in Bible study! For him to have a second chance!"

Some of the best moments of my whole life are moments like that, when I see people encounter the gospel incarnate, made live in the daily moments of their existance. It's what makes everything else worthwhile--the roaches, the cross-cultural awkwardness, the hours of preparation, the struggles over discipline and boundaries. All made more than worth it for a single moment of witnessing another person encountering God in the midst of darkness.

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Random quotable moments from study so far this year...
"He's so skinny! He looks like Jesus!"
"I want to raise my kids like white people do." (what this means I have no idea!)
"And God said to it, 'Vomit him!'"

lol. I love junior highers and high schoolers!