I am currently on a Greyhound bus going from Portland back to Redding. I was able to meet my best friend, Kelsey and her fiance in Redding Thursday night and go with them as they were moving up to Portland. It was really good to see her and my other best friend, Anna (who drove down from Seattle).
I found out I will be working with B3 (the program for sexually exploited girls) starting Monday!! A news station from the Bay Area did a special on the program and it aired Wednesday night. You can watch it here:
http://www.ktvu.com/video/28689390/index.html
It was kind of a hard week because I was sick and because God is working on me a lot in ways I was not expecting... Sorry that is kind of vague. Eventually I will write about it but not now. Just be praying that I keep obeying Him and trusting Him.
I met with a counselor for the first time and I am really excited about that! She seems really cool.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Week 7
I went for a walk on Saturday with a girl named Jessica who I met at small group last week. I then hung out with her and her husband all Saturday night. It was reallllly fun. I like them alot. In fact, I am hanging out with them again tonight! woo I am making friends!!! Exciting! I hurt my foot and am now wearing a huge "immobilizer boot" which may be one of the best inventions ever... It looks kind of like a moon boot though hah. Who knew proper footwear was so very important?! (I hurt my foot because I walked for a really long walk in flip flops and then jumped down some staircases in brand new shoes...) :)
Work this week went by pretty fast. I went out with my boss and a few of the girls to celebrate one of the girls' graduation from the program on Tuesday night. That was fun! I talked to my boss yesterday about working more with the girls who are in the sexually exploited program and she said that was definitely possible--so that is also exciting! (These are the girls I hung out with at the lake when I was on night shift a few weeks ago. They are awesome.)
I keep finding myself focusing on me and my problems and getting discouraged. I listened to a sermon for the second time called "Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything" from The Village Church by a guest speaker named Tullian Ta;hgoaeraobrepigfah (it's a rather complicated last name and I don't feel like looking it up). I listened to it on the way up here on June 2 and I was crying the whole time because it was exactly what God was trying to teach me then. Turns out He's still trying to teach me the same thing! Crazy how that happens! :)
I went to the small group again last night and it was great again. I really like the people there.
I love you. And I miss you. A. Lot.
Work this week went by pretty fast. I went out with my boss and a few of the girls to celebrate one of the girls' graduation from the program on Tuesday night. That was fun! I talked to my boss yesterday about working more with the girls who are in the sexually exploited program and she said that was definitely possible--so that is also exciting! (These are the girls I hung out with at the lake when I was on night shift a few weeks ago. They are awesome.)
I keep finding myself focusing on me and my problems and getting discouraged. I listened to a sermon for the second time called "Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything" from The Village Church by a guest speaker named Tullian Ta;hgoaeraobrepigfah (it's a rather complicated last name and I don't feel like looking it up). I listened to it on the way up here on June 2 and I was crying the whole time because it was exactly what God was trying to teach me then. Turns out He's still trying to teach me the same thing! Crazy how that happens! :)
I went to the small group again last night and it was great again. I really like the people there.
I love you. And I miss you. A. Lot.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Week 6 (Freakkkkkky. I've been here 6 weeks...)
I was on night shift this past week for the first time. It was fun! I was able to meet some people through a friend of my friend, Jana. I went to the lake with these new pals (hah I entertain myself) :) on Tuesday--they do this every Tuesday. What I didn't realize was that the girls from the other girl program (for girls who have been sexually exploited) have been going to the church where these people go to and have been going the lake every Tuesday as well. So they were there with one of the girls from the program I work with. It was really fun!! I hung (that sounds weird so I think it's wrong but I don't know what the right tense would be...) out with them Monday night and one of them did my nails--she'd been asking to do them for like 2 weeks haha. I think I might eventually like to work with them but for now I love working with my girls.
Ummmm... I was pretty discouraged after going to that church on Saturday night. Specifically, I was thinking that God's "best" for me will never be that great and it was just going to be hard and "sanctifying" but I won't ever actually have "fun"/ I won't ever enjoy where I am at. I find myself coming back to this lie over and over again throughout my life. So I, once again, just kept praying through it and asking God where He was in this time in my life and to help me believe that His "best" is going to be good and hard but not just hard. This was on Sunday and then Jana's friend and I got in touch and he is going to help me find friends here haha it was very sweet of him. There was one girl in particular that I talked to at the lake that was really cool but I liked them all!
Another way God reminded me to trust His love was that a random woman in Trader Joe's (aka my second home the past month and a half) came up and started talking to me for like 5-10 minutes. Eventually we stopped talking and she left. She then came back like 20 seconds later and gave me her card and asked me to call her if I wanted/needed a "mom" in Redding. I was just praying about wanting to find an older woman to have coffee with. :)
Yet another way is that Jana's friend (whose name is Steve--I've mentioned him enough that it would be easier to just say his name).. so Steve told me about a college group on Thursday nights from the church I hung out with on Tuesday. This college group is hosted by a couple. While the fact that I could be involved in a small group was enough of an affirmation that God was going before me and I could trust Him, He would not be satisfied in that. The couple who leads this group are the parents of a girl/woman (?) I met at church the weekend before I moved up here. She was sitting directly in front of me; she NEVER went to the church campus I was at and she never goes to the service time I was at--she and her friend just up and decided to go. Anyways, she told me to call her parents because they lead a small group up in Redding and I had been trying for a few weeks but never got an answer and the answering machine didn't ever come up. So, I feel like I should PROBABLY go to the small group... :)
OH! I also got a counseling appointment with a pastoral counselor. :) Yet another thing I had been upset about (i.e. not being able to find a counselor).
Ummmm... I was pretty discouraged after going to that church on Saturday night. Specifically, I was thinking that God's "best" for me will never be that great and it was just going to be hard and "sanctifying" but I won't ever actually have "fun"/ I won't ever enjoy where I am at. I find myself coming back to this lie over and over again throughout my life. So I, once again, just kept praying through it and asking God where He was in this time in my life and to help me believe that His "best" is going to be good and hard but not just hard. This was on Sunday and then Jana's friend and I got in touch and he is going to help me find friends here haha it was very sweet of him. There was one girl in particular that I talked to at the lake that was really cool but I liked them all!
Another way God reminded me to trust His love was that a random woman in Trader Joe's (aka my second home the past month and a half) came up and started talking to me for like 5-10 minutes. Eventually we stopped talking and she left. She then came back like 20 seconds later and gave me her card and asked me to call her if I wanted/needed a "mom" in Redding. I was just praying about wanting to find an older woman to have coffee with. :)
Yet another way is that Jana's friend (whose name is Steve--I've mentioned him enough that it would be easier to just say his name).. so Steve told me about a college group on Thursday nights from the church I hung out with on Tuesday. This college group is hosted by a couple. While the fact that I could be involved in a small group was enough of an affirmation that God was going before me and I could trust Him, He would not be satisfied in that. The couple who leads this group are the parents of a girl/woman (?) I met at church the weekend before I moved up here. She was sitting directly in front of me; she NEVER went to the church campus I was at and she never goes to the service time I was at--she and her friend just up and decided to go. Anyways, she told me to call her parents because they lead a small group up in Redding and I had been trying for a few weeks but never got an answer and the answering machine didn't ever come up. So, I feel like I should PROBABLY go to the small group... :)
OH! I also got a counseling appointment with a pastoral counselor. :) Yet another thing I had been upset about (i.e. not being able to find a counselor).
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Week 5 update
I went to the only church and it was a no go. Which is very discouraging because it is the ONLY one with a Saturday service in a 100 mile radius... I just spent 2 hours looking.
Week 5
This week was quite eventful. I will give you a day-by-day play-by-play :)
Sunday: I was "on clean-up" which means I supervised the team of girls who cleaned the dining hall after each meal. That was my first time being the only staff member with the girls. It was fun! I missed industrial dish cleaning haha...but I am kind of serious. My boss (Sarah, who is AWESOME--she reminds me of my friends Anna and Carolyn put together. She's fun.) has a bear hunting dog named Missy. We saw Missy walking up to campus with some sort of animal in her mouth which turned out to be a baby deer's head and front legs that a mountain lion had killed... disgusting and really sad. After work a few other staff and I went down about 10 minutes from campus to watch fireworks from the towns down the valley. It was cool to see the stars and there was a lunar eclipse that we watched happen. The fireworks were about the size of a quarter from that far away but eh, the stars were cooler anyway.
Monday: The other staff and I dressed up really crazy for Fourth of July. We had the girls make "floats" for a parade out of cardboard boxes and art supplies. They loved it. We had Tri-Tip and other bbq goodness for lunch and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was SO good. I am hungry thinking about it. ahhhhhh. Then we had the girls do their parade. Some of them were HILARIOUS. One of the girls dressed up as Obama and put tape behind her ears to make them stick out because Obama has very prominent ears (i.e. he's got Dumbo ears :) ). The staff did a parade last and threw candy at the girls. They were quite excited about the candy. hah We then went out to our field/track area and some of the staff were hiding and ambushed the girls with water balloons. We then had a water balloon and shaving cream fight. It was fun. I don't advise swallowing shaving cream though. It hurts. Bad. We then went to our pond for a couple hours and swam and laid out tanning. I don't want to think of all the organisms living in that frigid water. Sick nasty. But it was fun. Then we had dinner and some sort of dessert...I think... (the girls don't get any kind of sugar or dessert unless it's a holiday or someone's birthday). We told them we were done for the night at that point and went back to showers and FOB time (FOB="Feet On Bed"). They were a bit disappointed that they couldn't see fireworks.... heh heh heh... we had one more surprise coming.. FIREWORKS! We drove to a flat space about 10 minutes from campus and watched the Redding fireworks. The girls had fun. It was a great and EXHAUSTTTTTTTTTTTING day.
Tuesday: I don't think anything substantial happened Tuesday... But there is a Bible Study we have for the girls on Wednesday nights and I was thinking "Man, I am SO glad I am not in charge of Bible Study because that sounds incredibly intimidating and I don't really feel any motivation right now to seriously study the Bible..." I don't know WHY I think these things... You will understand. Keep reading.
Wednesday: During our staff meeting I was asked to co-lead the Bible Study. Duh. DUH. God is a FUNNY one and I immediately knew I needed to because of what I was thinking the day before. haha woooooo PRAY FOR ME.
Thursday: I drove with Sarah (My awesome boss) and two other staff members (Matina and Jessica who are awesome as well) to drop Sarah off at the SAC airport and then Matina, Jessica and I were going to hang out in SAC for a while. Instead, we drove the extra like 40 minutes to San Fran. IT WAS SOOOOO FUN. SOOOO FUN. And exactly what we needed. This job is great but it is really draining emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc. We got to goof off and act like normal 20-somethings rather than moms. We also talked about Jesus and how each of us is doing. I realized just how much I miss talking with people about Jesus and real issues in their hearts/lives--so I am even more excited about leading the Bible Study. :) I had been feeling sad for a while now because I feel most alive when I am talking about Jesus and real things with people and the nature of my job limits the amount I can. God has been teaching me to not look to my "ability" to counsel as my identity but as something he is going to use me to glorify Him with. I like Him. A LOT. :) On the way back up to Redding from SF I had an overwhelming thought: I have been in the process of walking in obedience to God without knowing what He was doing and I have been learning to do this hard walk without complaining or expecting it to be "fun" all the time/at all and He is giving me an opportunity to do what I love most (talk about Him) and He gave me a really FUN day.
I am going to go to church tonight for the first time since I have been here. I am working nights this week so I don't have to be on campus during the day tomorrow so I will go to church in the morning too, I think. I called the counselors I talked to a while ago to set up appointments with them.
I love you all and miss you.
Sunday: I was "on clean-up" which means I supervised the team of girls who cleaned the dining hall after each meal. That was my first time being the only staff member with the girls. It was fun! I missed industrial dish cleaning haha...but I am kind of serious. My boss (Sarah, who is AWESOME--she reminds me of my friends Anna and Carolyn put together. She's fun.) has a bear hunting dog named Missy. We saw Missy walking up to campus with some sort of animal in her mouth which turned out to be a baby deer's head and front legs that a mountain lion had killed... disgusting and really sad. After work a few other staff and I went down about 10 minutes from campus to watch fireworks from the towns down the valley. It was cool to see the stars and there was a lunar eclipse that we watched happen. The fireworks were about the size of a quarter from that far away but eh, the stars were cooler anyway.
Monday: The other staff and I dressed up really crazy for Fourth of July. We had the girls make "floats" for a parade out of cardboard boxes and art supplies. They loved it. We had Tri-Tip and other bbq goodness for lunch and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was SO good. I am hungry thinking about it. ahhhhhh. Then we had the girls do their parade. Some of them were HILARIOUS. One of the girls dressed up as Obama and put tape behind her ears to make them stick out because Obama has very prominent ears (i.e. he's got Dumbo ears :) ). The staff did a parade last and threw candy at the girls. They were quite excited about the candy. hah We then went out to our field/track area and some of the staff were hiding and ambushed the girls with water balloons. We then had a water balloon and shaving cream fight. It was fun. I don't advise swallowing shaving cream though. It hurts. Bad. We then went to our pond for a couple hours and swam and laid out tanning. I don't want to think of all the organisms living in that frigid water. Sick nasty. But it was fun. Then we had dinner and some sort of dessert...I think... (the girls don't get any kind of sugar or dessert unless it's a holiday or someone's birthday). We told them we were done for the night at that point and went back to showers and FOB time (FOB="Feet On Bed"). They were a bit disappointed that they couldn't see fireworks.... heh heh heh... we had one more surprise coming.. FIREWORKS! We drove to a flat space about 10 minutes from campus and watched the Redding fireworks. The girls had fun. It was a great and EXHAUSTTTTTTTTTTTING day.
Tuesday: I don't think anything substantial happened Tuesday... But there is a Bible Study we have for the girls on Wednesday nights and I was thinking "Man, I am SO glad I am not in charge of Bible Study because that sounds incredibly intimidating and I don't really feel any motivation right now to seriously study the Bible..." I don't know WHY I think these things... You will understand. Keep reading.
Wednesday: During our staff meeting I was asked to co-lead the Bible Study. Duh. DUH. God is a FUNNY one and I immediately knew I needed to because of what I was thinking the day before. haha woooooo PRAY FOR ME.
Thursday: I drove with Sarah (My awesome boss) and two other staff members (Matina and Jessica who are awesome as well) to drop Sarah off at the SAC airport and then Matina, Jessica and I were going to hang out in SAC for a while. Instead, we drove the extra like 40 minutes to San Fran. IT WAS SOOOOO FUN. SOOOO FUN. And exactly what we needed. This job is great but it is really draining emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc. We got to goof off and act like normal 20-somethings rather than moms. We also talked about Jesus and how each of us is doing. I realized just how much I miss talking with people about Jesus and real issues in their hearts/lives--so I am even more excited about leading the Bible Study. :) I had been feeling sad for a while now because I feel most alive when I am talking about Jesus and real things with people and the nature of my job limits the amount I can. God has been teaching me to not look to my "ability" to counsel as my identity but as something he is going to use me to glorify Him with. I like Him. A LOT. :) On the way back up to Redding from SF I had an overwhelming thought: I have been in the process of walking in obedience to God without knowing what He was doing and I have been learning to do this hard walk without complaining or expecting it to be "fun" all the time/at all and He is giving me an opportunity to do what I love most (talk about Him) and He gave me a really FUN day.
I am going to go to church tonight for the first time since I have been here. I am working nights this week so I don't have to be on campus during the day tomorrow so I will go to church in the morning too, I think. I called the counselors I talked to a while ago to set up appointments with them.
I love you all and miss you.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Week 4
This week went by SUPER fast. That is exciting, I think... I am a bit homesick. And by "a bit" I mean I am very homesick. I really miss my friends and family and home (both the HIU dorm and the Whittier house) and dog and cats and not 2000 degree weather and cell phone reception and internet and church.
I requested four days off in September so I can be in SoCal for a longer time for Kelsey's wedding which I am a maid of honor in. Please be praying I get all four of those days off. She and her fiance will be moving up to Oregon at the end of the month for his job so I will get to see them as they drive through Redding. That is verrrrrry exciting.
That's all for this week :/ Love you all.
I requested four days off in September so I can be in SoCal for a longer time for Kelsey's wedding which I am a maid of honor in. Please be praying I get all four of those days off. She and her fiance will be moving up to Oregon at the end of the month for his job so I will get to see them as they drive through Redding. That is verrrrrry exciting.
That's all for this week :/ Love you all.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)