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