Dear amazingly patient, forgiving, and loving friends and family,
Well, one of my personal goals for this year has been to become more disciplined, but as is evident by my lack of updates, I sill need to work on that…I will do better in the future. There are several things that you need to be updated on, beginning with work. Soon after I was rehired by World Vision, I was offered a position that would eventually become a permanent position after 13 weeks of training. I have an amazing group of friends at work and we were all in a two-week classroom together with an amazing trainer. The class was all girls who are good friends with a male trainer; you can imagine how much fun we had, or how much havoc we wreaked on our poor defenseless trainer, whichever way you want to look at it! Just recently the 13 week training period ended and got a raise AND benefits. This is all very new to me, I actually have life insurance now, and paid vacation time, it’s a little crazy. I am truly blessed to be working at World Vision because I truly love what the organization is about even if I have qualms about some of the practices, and I have been blessed with some amazing friends there. Through my relationships at work I am really seeing the diversity of the Christian faith, and learning how to work through that. There are two girls in particular that are really close with me, Anna and Olivia. The verse “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17) comes to mind when I think about our friendship. Anna and I always talk about how we stretch each other which can be a painful process sometimes but in the end it is always good.
One of the other big parts of my life right now is my work at the Juvenile Detention Center. I am there as much as my schedule allows me to be, and often doing phone work outside of the office. One of the main things I do is set up the calendar of groups coming in to lead chapel services on Sunday nights. I enjoy it because I am building relationships with churches in the Seattle community and several para-church ministry groups. I also set up for and attend chapel services, which is one of the only times I get to spend with the kids right now. Once school is out for the summer, my schedule will give me more opportunity to spend time with the kids in detention, and counseling with them. I am really looking forward to that. And I couldn’t ask for a better “boss”. Steve is an amazing leader, and mentor. The funny thing is, I rarely see him, and if I do, it’s most likely not at the office. Our schedules are pretty different, and Steve is always out of town, so most of our communication is by phone. It’s pretty crazy, but I love every minute of it.
One of my other commitments is the Girls Group every week with the middle school girls. I have really grown close to these girls this year. We’ve been meeting over at our house for the last few months and they love it. Katie, who I usually co-lead the bible study with is in Europe for the next month, so I am leading the bible study myself and we’re talking about boys…it’s interesting but it’s going well. I’m excited to say that one of the girls who regularly attends Girl’s Group, Tori, was baptized this Sunday in our church and I am very proud of her because this decision to go through the process was something she initiated.
As for my housemates and I, we have been doing well, and we’ve being more intentional about spending time together and really building the community of our house. We also just went on a house retreat to a town called Plain, WA. We had a good time on the retreat and were really able to open up with each other and our Site Coordinator, Michelle. The place where we did our retreat was up in the mountains, and absolutely beautiful, except for the rain. We participated in some team building exercises, and we able to talk about ways we had seen each other improve and ways that we felt each other could still use some improvement. Overall the retreat went well; I just wish we had been able to do it sooner. Other than that, Jeff and I are trying to adjust to there being only two of us in the house. Hailey decided to leave the house early and move back to San Antonio before heading to seminary in the fall. She left at the end of May, and I definitely miss her. Jeff and I are sort of opposite personalities, and Hailey was in the middle of us, personality-wise, so it is definitely taking some getting used to, but we’re making it work.
I have officially made the decision to stay another year in White Center, living in the Intentional Community house. I was struggling with this decision for several reasons. I knew God was calling me to stay here for another year, and I knew that pretty early on. But with all of the changes in the program this year and that fact that the program was not what I expected when I moved out here, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to live in the house again. So, the search began for another place to live, and some options were available to me…a friend at work was considering moving, or a friend of a friend was looking for a new apartment, and needed a roommate, or, best of all, one of the young women at my church had just moved back to White Center, and was looking for a roommate in August because her current roommate was moving out. After discussing my options for moving out of the house, I talked with Michelle about the prospects for incoming young adult volunteers and what her vision for the program is. After talking with Michelle, and praying for discernment, I decided to accept the offer to live in the house next year, and I am happy with that decision.
I can really see myself growing here mentally and spiritually. I feel like I am living my faith in everything I do right now, and that is a really awesome feeling. I didn’t talk about it openly but when I first moved to Seattle, I really struggled. I knew that I was supposed to be here but I felt really distant from God. I struggled with that for quite a while. I just felt like I wasn’t being filled and that God wasn’t speaking to me. It wasn’t just something I was feeling, people were noticing it too. I figured out that in everything here—my job, my volunteering, my house, my church—I was giving, and I wasn’t taking any time to receive. Until recently, I was always on the receiving side of ministry, and I didn’t realize how much you HAVE to feed yourself so you don’t burn out. I was starting to burn out pretty early on in my year, and at Christmas, I made the decision to not do EVERYTHING. I made some decisions to cut back in certain areas, and to intentionally make time just for me and God. I also added more prayer time and study time. I have some really great friends and housemates who keep me accountable and are incredibly encouraging. I still have my struggles, mostly with giving up control to God on everything and being disciplined in my prayer and study life. So, please pray for me on that!
On the seminary front, I am still undecided on where and when, but definitely going. I am gearing up for going in Fall 2009 but I’m not entirely sure. I am looking at Princeton, Louisville, McCormick (in Chicago), Fuller Northwest, and Bakke Graduate University. The latter two are local to the Seattle area. I don’t know yet if I can leave Seattle, the winters are HORRIBLE but it’s totally worth it in the summer! It’s not just that, I am in love with the White Center community and my church community. I’ll probably apply to several, and see where God leads me. I am currently working on my essays for McCormick and Princeton (the questions are incredibly similar), so some progress is being made.
I think that covers just about everything so I just have one more thing to share. On May 29, my car died. On I-5. At 2 am. It was a little stressful, and has been ever since. My car needs a new engine. I put a big hole in it ( I still don’t know how??). So, needless to say, that’s a pretty expensive venture. I decided in the beginning that I needed to just let God take care of it, and that meant I couldn’t worry, and I needed to pray. The whole thing has been a God story….My car died just a few days before my mom was coming to visit. So I stayed with a friend for two nights and she took me to work, and then I didn’t have to worry about it for a few days. I called around to a few people who co-workers and church members had recommended. No luck. I needed to move it from the shop it was at, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I had it towed to my house. Apparently (I didn’t know it at the time), there is a guy who lives behind our church, who is a certified mechanic but does independent work. Well, he was doing some contract work at our church and he saw my car being towed to my house and offers to fix it…without even knowing what’s wrong. A few minutes later, two of my girls from girl’s group are beating on my back door, and tell me to come to the church. I tell Don what’s wrong my car, and he tells me he’ll fix it for less than $1000, which is quite a steal. Don is looking for an engine, and for the time being I am relying on friends, the bus, and recently someone from work was gracious enough to let me borrow their extra car for as long as needed. Don has been looking for an engine for about 3 weeks now, and if one isn’t found in three more weeks, I think I’m going to scrap my car and look around for a new one. But…I’m not worried about it because I’m trusting God. As my man, Kirk Franklin says, He will supply!
Well, as always, thanks for reading, and just a side note, I LOVE it when you reply/leave me notes!
Shalom,
Kelli
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The Coffee Law
Right now I am sitting at my favorite coffee shop, just watching the rain fall down, and I could be complaining about the crummy Seattle weather, but I'm not. For the last week or so, it has been absolutely beautiful here. Even though the gorgeous weather is gone for now, I know its what I have to look forward to in the summer. Well, I want to start off this post with some serious praise to God...I have a job again! After just three short weeks of unemployment, I am back at World Vision, in a similar position to what I had before. I just finished training and I start by myself on Monday, so I am a little nervous.
I am also starting to volunteer at a new placement, and I am incredibly excited about it. I will still be working at the church two days a week, with the afterschool program and middle school girl's bible study, but now I will also be working a few days a week as an admin assistant to the chaplain at King County's Juvenile Detention Center. Mostly I will be doing administrative work in the Chaplain's office, and working some with the youth, but I am most excited for the opportunities involved with the work of developing an after-care program for youth who are leaving the dentention center but still need help. This position might eventually turn into a paid part-time position in the short-term and a full-time position later on!
As you may know, once you move to Seattle, you are required to drink coffee, preferably from a local shop and you must enjoy it...you can be arrested if you don't! Well, since I didn't want to risk arrest, I have been on the hunt for a good local coffee shopand I have finally found one. It's locally owned with a few shops in the Seattle area. The shop I frequent is in West Seattle, about 5 miles from our house and near the water. I can get here easily by bus as well as car, it's small, intimate, and friendly (the baristas already know me), it has free wi-fi (internet), they serve ONLY 100% organic coffee, and you can get organic milk too, and the coffee and food are delicious and inexpensive. I am at the coffee shop often (in fact I am writing this update from my favorite spot here)...I think this offically makes me a Seattleite!
Part of the reason I am writing again so soon is because I have two very important requests for prayer...please, please pray for an end to the violence in Kenya! One of the reasons I am asking this is because Mt View Church has some very close friends in Kenya...we have a partner ministry with some folks over there. If you haven't heard, Kenya is in the middle of major violence because of issues with their recent elections. The two tribes who are fighting are the Kikuyu and the Luo tribes. We recently had a guest speaker at church who is a youth worker in the Dagoretti slum in Nairobi. He is the member of the Kikuyu tribe and heads back home soon, back into the violence. His name is James. Also in the Nairobi area are David, Mark and Moses, who live and work in the Mathare Valley. We have a partner minstry with them, called the Inspiration Center. The center reaches out to the children in the Mathare Valley, a major slum in Nairobi. Recently, the building next to the Inspiration Center was burned to the ground, and Mark was shot in the hand (but he is ok). The last we heard is that they are all ok but are sleeping at the Inspiration Center to ensure nothing happens to the building.
I am also asking for continued prayers for Michelle, our new site coordinator. January has been a tragic month for her. Just two weeks after she lost her mother in a tragic car accident (she was hit by a car), her fiance passed away in Atlanta. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but he was supposed to be released from the hospital and unexpectedly died. In a situation like this it's hard to even know WHAT to pray for, please just pray for her to receive comfort from friends and family as well as from God...
Blessings to you ALL, and thanks for taking the time to read what's going on with me.
Kelli
I am also starting to volunteer at a new placement, and I am incredibly excited about it. I will still be working at the church two days a week, with the afterschool program and middle school girl's bible study, but now I will also be working a few days a week as an admin assistant to the chaplain at King County's Juvenile Detention Center. Mostly I will be doing administrative work in the Chaplain's office, and working some with the youth, but I am most excited for the opportunities involved with the work of developing an after-care program for youth who are leaving the dentention center but still need help. This position might eventually turn into a paid part-time position in the short-term and a full-time position later on!
As you may know, once you move to Seattle, you are required to drink coffee, preferably from a local shop and you must enjoy it...you can be arrested if you don't! Well, since I didn't want to risk arrest, I have been on the hunt for a good local coffee shopand I have finally found one. It's locally owned with a few shops in the Seattle area. The shop I frequent is in West Seattle, about 5 miles from our house and near the water. I can get here easily by bus as well as car, it's small, intimate, and friendly (the baristas already know me), it has free wi-fi (internet), they serve ONLY 100% organic coffee, and you can get organic milk too, and the coffee and food are delicious and inexpensive. I am at the coffee shop often (in fact I am writing this update from my favorite spot here)...I think this offically makes me a Seattleite!
Part of the reason I am writing again so soon is because I have two very important requests for prayer...please, please pray for an end to the violence in Kenya! One of the reasons I am asking this is because Mt View Church has some very close friends in Kenya...we have a partner ministry with some folks over there. If you haven't heard, Kenya is in the middle of major violence because of issues with their recent elections. The two tribes who are fighting are the Kikuyu and the Luo tribes. We recently had a guest speaker at church who is a youth worker in the Dagoretti slum in Nairobi. He is the member of the Kikuyu tribe and heads back home soon, back into the violence. His name is James. Also in the Nairobi area are David, Mark and Moses, who live and work in the Mathare Valley. We have a partner minstry with them, called the Inspiration Center. The center reaches out to the children in the Mathare Valley, a major slum in Nairobi. Recently, the building next to the Inspiration Center was burned to the ground, and Mark was shot in the hand (but he is ok). The last we heard is that they are all ok but are sleeping at the Inspiration Center to ensure nothing happens to the building.
I am also asking for continued prayers for Michelle, our new site coordinator. January has been a tragic month for her. Just two weeks after she lost her mother in a tragic car accident (she was hit by a car), her fiance passed away in Atlanta. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but he was supposed to be released from the hospital and unexpectedly died. In a situation like this it's hard to even know WHAT to pray for, please just pray for her to receive comfort from friends and family as well as from God...
Blessings to you ALL, and thanks for taking the time to read what's going on with me.
Kelli
Saturday, January 5, 2008
VERY long awaited update
Wow, sooo much has happened since I moved to Seattle in September. I apologize for not getting an update out before now, life is pretty crazy here. In fact, the only reason I have time to write now is because I am currently unemployed (yes, again!). My first job in Seattle was with World Vision which is a Christian humanitarian organization that deals with poverty in the US and in several developing countries throughout the world. My job with WV was in the Call Center. I received calls from people wanting to donate money to World Vision through the gift catalog. Pretty simple, but I had a lot of fun working there, and I met some really amazing people. The reason that I am now jobless is because the job at World Vision was a contracted position and my contract ended. I knew my end date was coming up but was hoping to extend my contract, while looking for another job. But the contract extension did not happen, so now I am on the hunt for a new job. For the last month or so I have felt called to find something more in line with what my passion is (If you’re wondering what this is, I will get to it a little later). I am not sure if this is supposed to be more on a volunteering basis or an actual job yet…
Right now my volunteering hours are filled with tutoring at the church’s after-school program, helping out a teacher in her classroom at Mt View Elementary School, participating/occasionally co-leading a bible study for middle school girls, and providing childcare for The Language Institute, run out of Mt View Presbyterian Church twice a week. Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission runs an after-school program for children in the community. The age group is K-6th grade and I tutor a group of second and third grade girls, they are a group of about 6-7 usually. I love working at After-School, though it is definitely a challenge at times. I am basically running my own mini-classroom, and it is always a little crazy! I am also helping out in a teacher’s classroom at Mt View Elementary a few hours a week. I work in a second grade classroom, and sometimes I help the kids with math, but I also help the teacher file papers, and make the homework packets, anything I can to help out the teacher, Mrs. Lentz, who is a first-year teacher. One of the great things about helping at a community school is that not only am I helping out a teacher, I am the eyes and ears of the church—and I pay attention to anyone who may need something the church can provide like a winter coat, or some new books for the school, and I am also providing a sense of stability and consistency with the kids that I see both in the classroom and at After-School. I am at the after-school program three days a week, and on Tuesdays I help out with Girl’s Group which is a hang-out time to talk and learn about life, love, and God. It’s for middle-school girls and the group is growing to about 6 girls, and we do a bible study each week using the devotional book “Girls of Grace”. This is one of my favorite things to do because I get to be a middle-schooler again and make crafts, but I also get to be an example of how to live like a Christian, and to show these girls the Christians can be cool too. Most of the girls in the group are still determining whether or not they believe in God, but it’s really great that they are coming to this group to spend time with some people who can be good examples of faith, and still have fun! I also work 1-2 nights a week with the Language Institute which is a program that offers basic and advanced English classes to recent immigrants in the White Center area, among other places. They also do home tutoring for families. One of the major constraints for people wanting to attend the classes is childcare. So my roommate and I provide our “world-renowned” (HAHA) babysitting skills twice a week. Last quarter there was only one child who came. His name was Tahn and he was from Vietnam. HE was ten years old and was mentally handicapped as well as mute, and he did not understand much English. We spent a lot of time watching movies and doing puzzles. Brianne (who runs the institute) was able to promote childcare for this next quarter which just started and we now have four children attending.
One of the other great things I am involved with along with my roommates is a class through University Presbyterian Church. The class is called Urban Advocates and each member of the class is paired up with an urban partner and we meet with them to learn more about how their organization works and how they are advocates for the urban community. I am partnered with an organization called New Horizons Ministries ( www.nhmin.org ). New Horizons works with the homeless street youth of Seattle, and provides a drop-in several times a week in the mornings and evenings where the youth can come in and get a hot meal, wash their clothes, get new clothes, take a shower, find out about classes, jobs, or other services they might need, and just take a break from life on the streets. One of the things that is different about New Horizons is that they don’t ask as much information up front, just the information that they absolutely need, they don’t proselytize to the kids, and they accept the kids as is-meaning they can be under the influence as long as they aren’t causing problems, and they can come in with weapons as long as they agree to have them locked up while they are at the facility. I think this is what makes New Horizons such a popular place for kids to come in the area. One of the other ministries of New Horizons is their ministry to prostitutes. The have street teams who volunteer to go out during the night and provide water and food, as well as condoms to the prostitutes, and they also tell them about the services that New Horizons offers.
Before I even met with New Horizons I had an interesting experience involving them. I was taking the bus home from work one day, and I was talking with a fellow YAV who is in Hollywood, and we were just catching up on everything we’ve been involved in and I was telling her about New Horizons, when I am interrupted from my conversation by someone else on the bus. I look up and it’s a young kid-he looks about 15 and he looks like he hasn’t had a bath in a few days, his clothes are tattered, and he looks like he’s on drugs. He is asking me about New Horizons. I quickly get off the phone with my friend and begin to tell him about New Horizons and give him the phone number and location. He then asks to use my phone and I oblige, but I am pretty sure he called his drug dealer. Still, he takes the information about New Horizons. The strange thing about this is experience is that I was on a bus that I had never taken and normally wouldn’t have taken, and I was talking with someone I had never called in the 3 years I had known her, previous to us both serving as Young Adult Volunteers.
Speaking of taking busses, I came to Seattle with the intention of relying on the bus system, but now I have a car. It all started back in October when I accepted the job at World Vision. My roommate Hailey had already accepted a position there, so I asked for the same hours as her, so that we could carpool. Well, the first day of work rolls around and Hailey and I head off the Federal Way, a good 30 minute drive. When we arrive, Hailey is informed that there is a problem--her time off had not been approved and they did not have a contract for her. So, Hailey had to go home, and after more complications, she ended up not working for World Vision. Obviously, now I did not have a ride to work, so I started to look up bus schedules. The bus system in Seattle as a whole is excellent, but it’s not so great in and out of White Center. The first week, my schedule was 9am-6pm, and I had to be at the bus stop by 6:15am and take 4 buses to get to work on time, and I didn’t get home until 8:00pm, after another four buses. And, to make matters worse, my schedule after training was supposed to be 6am-3pm, and there was no way for me to work those hours if I traveled by bus. But let me tell you, GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME! That same week, as I was stressing out over transportation, we get a call from our site coordinator, who said a woman who lives near Seattle, and attends University Presbyterian Church, wants to donate her car to the Intentional Community House. At first I wasn’t sure because the car would be in my name and it meant incurring more bills for insurance, etc; but I prayed a lot about it and in the end it was clear that I should take the car. It’s a 1992 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon, I’ll post pictures don’t worry! The car has definitely been a blessing, and will continue to be one to future residents of the house.
There have also been some pretty big changes going on within our community. First, Mount View Presbyterian Church has had a part-time pastor on supply from the Presbytery…for the last NINE years. Finally, after receiving pressure from the presbytery, Claudia (the pastor) and a committee began a process to determine whether God was calling Claudia to stay on as a full-time pastor at Mt View or to move on. The consensus from Claudia and the committee both was that it was time for Claudia to move on. Her last Sunday was December 30. Mt View does have a commissioned lay pastor, but she also has a full-time job! So, for right now, the church and presbytery are trying to find a interim pastor and until then Lina (the lay pastor) and other friends of Mt View will be preaching. *Quickly before I explain this next change, I need to explain that our program in Seattle is through Young Adult Volunteers but it is also a part of University Presbyterian Church and is called Seattle Urban Intentional Community* The Intentional Community falls under UPC’s Department of Urban and Global Missions which is going through some staff changes. These staff changes affect us because our site coordinator, Mike, has received a promotion and a new person, Michelle, has filled his position. So we are unsure how much Mike is going to be involved with the rest of the year, and we are trying to get to know Michelle.
Michelle actually led formation (our Thursday meeting) this week and she brought us a really interesting test/assessment. It was about discovering your passion. We started out discussing what passion is and then we answered the questions “What excites you in or about the world?” and “What angers you in or about the world?” We moved on to picking out action words that excited us most out of a list of 100 words- we came out with about 21 words, and then had to narrow it down to 3-4. The next question was “What is your cause?” And last we made a list of types of people. Using these components we came up with a passion statement…My mission/passion is to model, excite, communicate to, and encourage underprivileged, poor youth to believe that God is love and love is all that matters. (Shout out to my FAVE Bryan McFarland because the bold words are his lyrics!!)
Michelle was just here Thursday night, talking about spending the holidays with her mom and then the next night she tragically lost her mother when she was hit by a car. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose your mother (I LOVE YOU MOM!) but I know that Michelle is dealing with some very tough emotions right now so I ask that you keep her and her family in your prayers, as we will be doing here.
Blessings to you all and thanks for reading, and I would love to hear what’s going on in your lives as well!
Peace,
Kelli
links to new pictures: http://fsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2366372&l=4f792&id=5206509
Right now my volunteering hours are filled with tutoring at the church’s after-school program, helping out a teacher in her classroom at Mt View Elementary School, participating/occasionally co-leading a bible study for middle school girls, and providing childcare for The Language Institute, run out of Mt View Presbyterian Church twice a week. Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission runs an after-school program for children in the community. The age group is K-6th grade and I tutor a group of second and third grade girls, they are a group of about 6-7 usually. I love working at After-School, though it is definitely a challenge at times. I am basically running my own mini-classroom, and it is always a little crazy! I am also helping out in a teacher’s classroom at Mt View Elementary a few hours a week. I work in a second grade classroom, and sometimes I help the kids with math, but I also help the teacher file papers, and make the homework packets, anything I can to help out the teacher, Mrs. Lentz, who is a first-year teacher. One of the great things about helping at a community school is that not only am I helping out a teacher, I am the eyes and ears of the church—and I pay attention to anyone who may need something the church can provide like a winter coat, or some new books for the school, and I am also providing a sense of stability and consistency with the kids that I see both in the classroom and at After-School. I am at the after-school program three days a week, and on Tuesdays I help out with Girl’s Group which is a hang-out time to talk and learn about life, love, and God. It’s for middle-school girls and the group is growing to about 6 girls, and we do a bible study each week using the devotional book “Girls of Grace”. This is one of my favorite things to do because I get to be a middle-schooler again and make crafts, but I also get to be an example of how to live like a Christian, and to show these girls the Christians can be cool too. Most of the girls in the group are still determining whether or not they believe in God, but it’s really great that they are coming to this group to spend time with some people who can be good examples of faith, and still have fun! I also work 1-2 nights a week with the Language Institute which is a program that offers basic and advanced English classes to recent immigrants in the White Center area, among other places. They also do home tutoring for families. One of the major constraints for people wanting to attend the classes is childcare. So my roommate and I provide our “world-renowned” (HAHA) babysitting skills twice a week. Last quarter there was only one child who came. His name was Tahn and he was from Vietnam. HE was ten years old and was mentally handicapped as well as mute, and he did not understand much English. We spent a lot of time watching movies and doing puzzles. Brianne (who runs the institute) was able to promote childcare for this next quarter which just started and we now have four children attending.
One of the other great things I am involved with along with my roommates is a class through University Presbyterian Church. The class is called Urban Advocates and each member of the class is paired up with an urban partner and we meet with them to learn more about how their organization works and how they are advocates for the urban community. I am partnered with an organization called New Horizons Ministries ( www.nhmin.org ). New Horizons works with the homeless street youth of Seattle, and provides a drop-in several times a week in the mornings and evenings where the youth can come in and get a hot meal, wash their clothes, get new clothes, take a shower, find out about classes, jobs, or other services they might need, and just take a break from life on the streets. One of the things that is different about New Horizons is that they don’t ask as much information up front, just the information that they absolutely need, they don’t proselytize to the kids, and they accept the kids as is-meaning they can be under the influence as long as they aren’t causing problems, and they can come in with weapons as long as they agree to have them locked up while they are at the facility. I think this is what makes New Horizons such a popular place for kids to come in the area. One of the other ministries of New Horizons is their ministry to prostitutes. The have street teams who volunteer to go out during the night and provide water and food, as well as condoms to the prostitutes, and they also tell them about the services that New Horizons offers.
Before I even met with New Horizons I had an interesting experience involving them. I was taking the bus home from work one day, and I was talking with a fellow YAV who is in Hollywood, and we were just catching up on everything we’ve been involved in and I was telling her about New Horizons, when I am interrupted from my conversation by someone else on the bus. I look up and it’s a young kid-he looks about 15 and he looks like he hasn’t had a bath in a few days, his clothes are tattered, and he looks like he’s on drugs. He is asking me about New Horizons. I quickly get off the phone with my friend and begin to tell him about New Horizons and give him the phone number and location. He then asks to use my phone and I oblige, but I am pretty sure he called his drug dealer. Still, he takes the information about New Horizons. The strange thing about this is experience is that I was on a bus that I had never taken and normally wouldn’t have taken, and I was talking with someone I had never called in the 3 years I had known her, previous to us both serving as Young Adult Volunteers.
Speaking of taking busses, I came to Seattle with the intention of relying on the bus system, but now I have a car. It all started back in October when I accepted the job at World Vision. My roommate Hailey had already accepted a position there, so I asked for the same hours as her, so that we could carpool. Well, the first day of work rolls around and Hailey and I head off the Federal Way, a good 30 minute drive. When we arrive, Hailey is informed that there is a problem--her time off had not been approved and they did not have a contract for her. So, Hailey had to go home, and after more complications, she ended up not working for World Vision. Obviously, now I did not have a ride to work, so I started to look up bus schedules. The bus system in Seattle as a whole is excellent, but it’s not so great in and out of White Center. The first week, my schedule was 9am-6pm, and I had to be at the bus stop by 6:15am and take 4 buses to get to work on time, and I didn’t get home until 8:00pm, after another four buses. And, to make matters worse, my schedule after training was supposed to be 6am-3pm, and there was no way for me to work those hours if I traveled by bus. But let me tell you, GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME! That same week, as I was stressing out over transportation, we get a call from our site coordinator, who said a woman who lives near Seattle, and attends University Presbyterian Church, wants to donate her car to the Intentional Community House. At first I wasn’t sure because the car would be in my name and it meant incurring more bills for insurance, etc; but I prayed a lot about it and in the end it was clear that I should take the car. It’s a 1992 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon, I’ll post pictures don’t worry! The car has definitely been a blessing, and will continue to be one to future residents of the house.
There have also been some pretty big changes going on within our community. First, Mount View Presbyterian Church has had a part-time pastor on supply from the Presbytery…for the last NINE years. Finally, after receiving pressure from the presbytery, Claudia (the pastor) and a committee began a process to determine whether God was calling Claudia to stay on as a full-time pastor at Mt View or to move on. The consensus from Claudia and the committee both was that it was time for Claudia to move on. Her last Sunday was December 30. Mt View does have a commissioned lay pastor, but she also has a full-time job! So, for right now, the church and presbytery are trying to find a interim pastor and until then Lina (the lay pastor) and other friends of Mt View will be preaching. *Quickly before I explain this next change, I need to explain that our program in Seattle is through Young Adult Volunteers but it is also a part of University Presbyterian Church and is called Seattle Urban Intentional Community* The Intentional Community falls under UPC’s Department of Urban and Global Missions which is going through some staff changes. These staff changes affect us because our site coordinator, Mike, has received a promotion and a new person, Michelle, has filled his position. So we are unsure how much Mike is going to be involved with the rest of the year, and we are trying to get to know Michelle.
Michelle actually led formation (our Thursday meeting) this week and she brought us a really interesting test/assessment. It was about discovering your passion. We started out discussing what passion is and then we answered the questions “What excites you in or about the world?” and “What angers you in or about the world?” We moved on to picking out action words that excited us most out of a list of 100 words- we came out with about 21 words, and then had to narrow it down to 3-4. The next question was “What is your cause?” And last we made a list of types of people. Using these components we came up with a passion statement…My mission/passion is to model, excite, communicate to, and encourage underprivileged, poor youth to believe that God is love and love is all that matters. (Shout out to my FAVE Bryan McFarland because the bold words are his lyrics!!)
Michelle was just here Thursday night, talking about spending the holidays with her mom and then the next night she tragically lost her mother when she was hit by a car. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose your mother (I LOVE YOU MOM!) but I know that Michelle is dealing with some very tough emotions right now so I ask that you keep her and her family in your prayers, as we will be doing here.
Blessings to you all and thanks for reading, and I would love to hear what’s going on in your lives as well!
Peace,
Kelli
links to new pictures: http://fsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2366372&l=4f792&id=5206509
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)