God of This City

From the first time I heard that song, "God of This City," (originally by Bluetree, also recorded by Chris Tomlin) I loved it. It was inspired during a trip to Thailand when the band had the opportunity to play in a bar in the heart of a city there. The city was highly well-known for tourism, prostitution, and homelessness. As the songwriter was ministering, he was moved with the thought that despite the huge magnitude of pain, poverty, and sin God still has His claim on that city and every city in the world. Things aren't yet as He intends them to be, but He is Lord of lords. He is the God of the city, even if the people don't know it. He will remake this earth so that every city is free of the bondage it is currently in.

I often consider that, especially now that I'm living in a city. The city is usually perceived as a place that is God-less. Living so close to a big city like Los Angeles, I feel that godlessness at times. One of my wonderful new friends that I work with shared with me that there exist some groups in the area which target youth and college campuses to bring them into their "churches" by offering love and acceptance but then teach them deceptive philosophy and cut them off from their families through manipulative beliefs. It scared me because these groups are growing quickly and they are deceiving the very future of our nation. But on two separate occasions now as I was driving through at night, the bright lights lighting up the sky that song came on the radio:

While On-Duty

I'm on-duty this weekend for the first time by myself. It's been a fairly busy evening, signing out vacuum cleaners, doing rounds, and dealing with a minor situation, but overall not too bad tonight. To be honest, I'm glad that I got to see several of the moms tonight. Working this new job on-site places me much closer to our families. To be honest, it's been a struggle for me to feel connected and put my heart into my job thus far. Dealing with kids is easy; dealing with grown-ups... not so much. There is a lot of drama, and it's easy to get caught up in it all. But yesterday I found myself in a conversation with one of our moms who is hopefully coming to the end of a two-year-long divorce case. She nearly lost her kids in the custody battle and then thought she was going to die during a physical and emotional breakdown. She had attended church for years and thought she had faith, but this trial in her life forced her to turn to God like never before. I was so thankful that she was able to share some of her story with me. Truly these women have a whole lot of garbage to wade through. They are battered and scarred inside. But they are so strong and beautiful and talented. For a Door of Hope fundraising event held last night, the women decorated a door as a piece of art, and let me tell you... it was amazing! Even just tonight during my interactions with them, I realize that I have a whole lot to learn from them. Pray for us: pray for the women to find what they need and pray for me to love them and their children well.

I'm seeking inspiration right now. All the changes that have taken place recently with moving, meeting new people, finding my place in this environment seem to dull my thinking. What I mean is that normally as I learn and experience new things my brain gets super philosophical as I interpret and process everything. Maybe I've been out of school too long. Ha. It's certainly a possibility. I must admit that I miss being in the academic world. I don't miss the endless hours of reading and writing papers whose deadlines nip at my heels, but I miss that kind of learning. I'm still learning now, but it's a much different kind of learning. It's life experience. Hmmm. Still, maybe I'll start looking up some info on grad schools. On-duty time means I'm stuck inside my apartment all day, perfect time for internet research :)

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

It's raining in southern California! Woo hoo! It's not just a drizzle, and it's not a downpour but rather a comfortable rain that goes on for a few hours, enough to clean things off. It's cooled down to a pleasant 58 degrees so that many people are in jackets and scarves, too. Those of us from out-of-state are pretty psyched about this wet weather. A nice cool rain was but a dream in my radar, but little did I know that it was actually in the weather radar for this week. My car has been needing a good washing, and while this won't completely do the trick, at least the build-up of dust will rinse off.

My car issues have subsided, thank goodness, and I'm finally registered with the state, got auto insurance, and have my new license plate. I'm excited to have that all taken care of. I still have to get around to attaching my front plate (California requires drivers to have plates on front and back), but I haven't gotten around to digging through the garage to find a tool to do it. I think I also seem to like to test the cops... will they actually stop me for it? Haha, we'll see.

A lot has happened pretty quickly since my last post. The biggest piece of news (which was just decided a couple days ago) is that I'm moving! I decided to take on one of the night & weekend manager positions at Door of Hope which will require me to live on-site. Our other new manager (who will be my new roommate) just moved here last Friday from Indiana. I'm going to start the process of transporting my stuff from Pasadena to Glendale tomorrow and hopefully be staying in my apartment at night by Friday. It's been difficult to get to the point of feeling settled, but I'm hoping that this move will finally allow me to feel at home. It is a huge financial blessing, and I'm so thankful to Door of Hope for providing the housing. It's going to be a great opportunity to interact more with the moms. I know the kids now pretty well, but this new job will offer more involvement with their moms. Surely it will come with tons of new challenges as well, so please pray for me and Julie, my new roommate, in this transition as we live with the Door of Hope families.

I bought my ticket home for Christmas! I'm super excited to be home for a week. I definitely miss the East Coast, Delaware, and my family and friends back home, but in less than three months I'll be home already! Time is flying.

Cheerlady

My car issues are on the up-and-up! I passed my smog inspection this morning! I was praying the whole time I sat in the waiting room, after failing it last week and then having to take it to a mechanic to fix some stuff and then get the oil changed. Now all I have to do to complete my vehicle registration is get to my appointment with the DMV on Thursday. The end is in sight!

I'm on my third week with the kids now, so we're starting to get more comfortable with each other... well, I am. They didn't really require must adjustment. Kids seem pretty adaptable. Mine are, anyway :) We currently have seven kids coming consistently in the after school program, but we are looking to fill three rooms with new families as soon as possible. Three families have graduated or moved out since I've been here, so there is obviously lots of transition here. (I guess that's why it's called transitional housing. Yeah.)

Today, one of my sweet, chatty little kindergarten girls began talking about sports. She made the claim that football is a "nasty sport because boys play it." I told her that girls do sometimes play football too, but then she told me, "No, girls play nice sports, like cheerlady!" You can't help but love these kids. Every day, I look forward to hearing what they're gonna say next. It's definitely a difficult transition moving out here alone, but the kids remind me why I'm here. They are my cheerleaders and don't even know it.

Stop Signs and Red Lights

My car and driving are the biggest sources of anguish for me. I just got home from work for the night, for the second time. As I pulled up to a stop on the street in front of my house tonight, I realized that my temporary parking permit had expired today and that I needed to get a new one for the next week so I won't get a parking ticket. I never even got out of my car and instead headed to the nearest machine about five minutes away. I will eventually get an annual permit, but first my car has to get registered in the state of California.... and before that I had to get a smog check which I did this morning, but it didn't pass... so before I get that I need a mechanic to fix it so it will pass inspection... and I had to get my own car insurance in California... and after all that I will hopefully get my permit. All of this because the city of Pasadena requires that I have a parking permit! I'm wondering if I should have lived in a different city...

Anyway, I got the permit and headed home. I was on a pretty dark, non-busy road, and before I knew it I had run through a stop sign, never seeing it until I was in the middle of the road already. Ugh! I thanked God that no one had seen me. Then I turned onto my street and approached the one set of lights I had to cross before my house. It turned yellow but I had plenty of time to get through. Or so I thought... I think my brain was in slow mode because I was paranoid about running through the stop sign and going slower than I should have because somehow it took me way longer than I thought it would to get under that light.... then it turned red.... then I thought I saw a flash of white light.... Oh no, not a camera!! NOOOO!!! I've been told Pasadena has traffic light cameras everywhere and that they send you tickets in the mail.... maybe since I still don't have my California tag on I'll get out of the ticket.

If I ever get through one day without some vehicle or driving issue, it will be a miracle.