take me out to the ball game...

See the time? I have class all day in the morning starting at 9. I have a paper due. So I went to a Dodgers game instead of writing it tonight...

old times, good times

Sarah's back!

Reunion with Sarah and Jolene...Sarah's moving back from Kansas City for awhile! Ah, the days when the three of us would meet regularly to pray and study...and invite unsuspecting women pastors over to question about doctrines and spirituality and charismatic things and women in ministry issues...those were the days. Regular Mexican food, laughing for hours, boy horror stories, long walks, vulnerability, prayer, fun times...my heart is happy. :)

...And it's blurry. Nice focus on the car in the background though.

Satisfaction is...

passing up three boys around my age on a big uphill climb on our mountain bikes like they were standing still! :) booyah.

broken hearts

On the corner of Santa Monica and Highland in Hollywood there is a tiny donut shop on the corner. Behind it is a parking lot and a small strip mall, housing among others an adult book store and a check cashing store, two things you never want to see move into your neighborhood.

This corner is where I have spent a good deal of time over the past few Thursday nights. This strip of Santa Monica is home to the largest and most popular gay nightclub in the greater LA area. It also has the largest concentration of transvestite prostitutes in Hollywood. The darkness and strongholds are palpable on this street.

The Broken Hearts Ministry team goes specifically to show love to the broken people on this street. As my heart has been to find female prostitutes, I’ve been talking with one of the leaders, Robin, about how we can begin to expand the ministry to find them and begin reaching out to them. We have a few ideas. Over the last three years though the team has found themselves brought back to this section of Santa Monica over and over. They’re a familiar sight on a few nights of each week.

Last night I had a long talk with Feyonce (“Like Beyonce with an ‘F’”), a 43 year old African American transvestite with long locks of platinum blond hair and better eye makeup than mine. She told me her whole philosophy of life, why people end up on the streets, how different each individual is and their reasons for being out there, her own story of coming out and being rejected by her family, her history of being a war veteran and having a college degree and traveling the world and working for a large insurance company. As I asked her about her spirituality and beliefs and heard her ideas of the origins of the Bible and Christianity and pointed out the truths that are actually in there, she kept bringing it back around to black pride and how the black people will prevail and there will be world peace. :) Sure, when Jesus comes back…

The teeny tiny donut shop is a popular place at 2am (or maybe it’s the p0rn shop…). It’s been a fruitful place for conversations, yet it’s one of the darkest places I have been in a long time. As these people with whom I have nothing in common socially become individual faces, Aubrey, Steve, George, Ray, Shadow, I continue to ask for that compassion and love that Jesus ministered with, to those who were well-off and the marginalized alike. Whether it is the female prostitutes that I hope to eventually reach or not, there are so many people in need of love and a sense of their worth and value in Christ. Each night as we gather to pray in the Del Taco parking lot before walking in groups down the street, we pray for those lives, for those strongholds, and for the hearts that are broken to be our own.

Retreat Pics

My purdy roommates...

Most of our small group came! I love my group...sigh.

my old friend

I'm becoming excited anew about my little old friend, the Danskin Triathlon. First I threw it all out the window at the prospect of doing a bigger, greater, more extravagant triathlon. Then I decided that this was my FIRST, it MADE me, and I should do it again, just for fun (I owe it, afterall), so I was going to do it as a relay team, in addition to the other. But THEN, amidst new sparks of interest from a few ladies at church and a couple other friends, who are really THISCLOSE to registering, I decided to do it all! So I registered today, yippee, in hopes that this year I will have a crowd of friends around me (or perhaps 4 or 5) to inspire me to go faster and not nearly hyperventilate in the lake, or slow down whilst my shoes melt on the pavement in the 95 degree weather, because we are a TEAM! WOOHOO!!! (Come on you guys, I registered, your turn...)

I'm posting already!

Happy daylight savings...why is it that one little hour knocks me off kilter for almost a week!? I'm tired. Yet it shouldn't be this late...
Played guitar for the women's retreat this weekend. Eek! I got over my nauseous perma-anxiety pretty much only this morning for the last session. (It was my first time.) Leading worship is something I've always wanted to do but I haven't put the time into really developing my skills to do so well. This was kind of inspiring to me. I'm glad I did it. It went pretty well, and I feel privileged to be able to help people enter into worship. I enjoyed the fellowship and rehearsals with the other ladies on the worship team. I felt like I was putting myself REALLY out there, mostly because they really needed someone. But it turned out to have its blessings. :)

Practice...

teaching or preaching?

My sister and I do similar things. We both have teaching roles at our churches. That is where the similarities end, we realized. She and her husband are the college pastors at a large Foursquare church. I teach women’s Bible studies at a Baptist church. First difference resulting in our denominations. Also,
Sister: “I’m preaching tonight.”
Me: “I’m teaching tonight too.”
Sister: “I have a lot of work to do on my sermon.”
Me: “I’m nearly done with my message.”
Essentially we are doing exactly the same thing, except in a Foursquare church she preaches, and in a Baptist church I teach. :)
She is a “pastor,” and I am a women’s Bible study teacher. She is as egalitarian as they come. I’ve changed a little since I’ve been around these parts, though I never had a firm opinion previously. I guess I might still be more egalitarian than some people in my church (though I wouldn’t call myself that exactly), but I sure don’t mind that I’m not a pastor preaching sermons. That sounds like a lot of pressure. :)

brea 8k

The only place where you can watch people chowing down on pizza, tacos, chips & salsa, salad, and pasta at 9:00 in the morning. Sick. I didn't feel so good after a short night, early rise, and a dinner at Cheesecake factory last night (!) but pulled off 44:15 which was faster than last year. :)

Jesus is Lost on a tropical island

This weekend I watched the Gospel of John movie, all three hours of it (the "theatrical" version). I love this depiction of Jesus and his ministry, it's one of my favorites. The guy who plays Jesus, Henry Ian Cusick, does a great job, plus he's easy on the eyes :) (Okay something feels just WRONG about saying that about Jesus.) Anyway, I had read that Jim Caviezel became a Christian after filming the Passion of the Christ, so I was very curious about Henry Ian Cusick's story. The John film was made for evangelistic purposes, so surely he must be a believer...?

I found this article on him, which starts off on a humorous note ("When I last saw Jesus, he was showing the wounds of his crucifixion to his disciples. Now he is leaning across the counter of Starbucks, craning to read the menu.") and gives some information on the actor. He is half Peruvian and half Scottish, a stage actor in London (did you know Jesus had a British accent?), and he grew up Roman Catholic. So after memorizing the entire book of John and portraying Jesus from baptism to ministry to crucifixion and beyond, this is what he had to say:

"The whole experience has rubbed off on me, too. It's made me think more carefully about who Jesus was. I go to Mass more often, and when the priest reads from the Gospel of John, I find myself saying: I know every word of this." Hmmm. I found myself disappointed. He was able to portray the charisma and character of Jesus so well, he memorized all his words from that gospel (and undoubtedly still knows them to some extent). Yet for all of that, the message apparently remains external. The true meaning of those words seems to be lost. How does that happen?

Speaking of Lost, which I never got into, Jesus is now one of the main characters on the show! I'm glad I haven't been watching it, that would definitely throw me off. :)

Jesus in a tie

Lunch

tonight

Joshua Bible Study, most of us (picture of the day!!) :)

Let me out!

Who invented the 8 hour workday?

I have been thinking about doing a "picture of the day" thing...so I'll try it. Can't promise every day, but I'll try (if I can remember to bring my camera with me).

pleasantries

Conversation yesterday regarding my unnamed but required Christian Education class with unnamed fellow Talbot student who also happens to be an unnamed overseer at church:

Unnamed Overseer: What class did you just have?
Me: [Unnamed unpleasant class]
U.O.: [laughs boisterously]
Me: Thanks
U.O.: How are you enjoying that?
Me: Ummm…well…
U.O.: It only gets worse!
Me: I can imagine.
U.O.: No, you really can’t!

Fabulous.

The other day I was struck by the hilarity of a parking lot. Do you ever think of normal everyday things such as traffic laws or even driving and think how weird it is that EVERYONE does it, knows how to do it, or submits to social norms and laws? I pulled into the big empty parking lot at church the other night, and maneuvered my car in between the two white lines comprising a parking spot, even though there were no other cars around. This struck me as weird at the moment, as does the fact frequently that I know how to and regularly operate a huge piece of metal machinery that is my car. Am I weird???

Perhaps my body was not made for this

I lathered up my toes in Vaseline, put on my double layer socks and tied my shoes loosely…yet by the end of our 9 miles I could barely walk! I seem to have been blessed with a heart that could power the Energizer bunny. But my knees are slowly failing me, and Saturday my feet hurt worse than anything else (at least I didn’t have any blisters). My running threshold seems to be 6-8 miles pain free. It could be that that is what I’m used to, and if I regularly ran longer distances my joints would adjust. But I’m not sure I want to take the chance, or face the toll that more and more miles per week would put on my whole body. Maybe I just need to be happy with 8 or less (which would mean no half marathon). I find it frustrating that my heart & lungs & muscles are fit for this, and I just love running for a long time! but my joints are just not as supportive of this hobby…blast my skeletal system!!

I’ve been curious about checking out a place like this, looking into things like correct training intensity, mechanical flaws, and possible orthotics (?) … just seems like so much trouble that takes the fun and ease out of just going outside and going for a run.

I'm trying to emit the right fragrance...

D. and I are memorizing 2 Corinthians together, four verses a week. We just finished chapter 2, and these last four verses have probably been the most meaningful to me yet. I'm not one for floofy figurative language (oops--am I allowed to call Paul floofy? I'm confident he was FAR from floofy) but I really like the "fragrance" and "aroma" imagery.

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (14-17)

This causes me to check what kind of "aroma" I put off -- here's hoping it's more of a fragrance than an odor -- and it's also a great picture of the influence we have on those around us. (Just think of something like fish and how the smell carries, how long it lasts, and how certain smells seems to stick around in rooms or clothing! One lady at work has fish at least once a week, and I am fortunate to have the desk closest to the microwave...) I would pray that these verses characterize my life, as one who spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him. WE are the ones who are the aroma of Christ to those around us, believers and non-believers alike. Perhaps I can pray for a more distinct, pungent scent. :)

dying form of communication

I think handwriting is a lost art. Today I typed an entry for my journal, to print and then glue into my journal! More pages have typed glued in entries than are handwritten lately. And last semester I started taking all my class notes on my laptop. I used to write SO much when I was younger, journaling, writing stories, etc., that I think I did permanent damage to my hand. I can't write more than a few minutes without it starting to hurt. And it's partially laziness and partially because it's faster to type. But with email, Word, electronic calendars, blogs :) ... who even needs to write anymore?

What is Christian Education?

(I know I said I wasn't looking forward to my classes this semester, and that is sort of true, particularly one of them. However I have come to the realization that that feeling is largely due to the fact that this is my second-to-last semester of grad school, I have been at this for nearly four years, and I am just ready to be DONE!)

From the perspective of someone who teaches women's Bible Studies (yes ME), I found our class discussion today particularly interesting. Educating the church body is far more than simply teaching. It involves bringing individuals and community into a full knowledge of God through many different means, ultimately resulting in transformation of both the individual and the body.

As far as teaching is concerned, there are five different words used to describe this in Scripture, in two groups...

RATIONAL/INTELLECTUAL:
1. yarah (Ps. 32:8) - to instruct, direct, point out
2. bin (Dan. 8:16) - to understand + discern + distinguish concepts (intellect)
3. shanan (Deut. 6:7) - to impress, sharpen, pierce, convict

RELATIONAL/EXPERIENTIAL:
4. ra'ah (Ps. 23:1) - to tend or feed, edify (also Greek poimen, to shepherd or pastor)
5. lamad (Deut. 4:5) - to train

The reason I write all this out is because the pendulum of rational and relational teaching, faith, and worship is something I've been thinking about and swinging on for years. Really a full knowledge of God includes both, so good teaching has to include both. Today there is a heavy emphasis on the relational experience of faith (personal application), which is more post-modern. Older teaching you might notice (also older worship - hymns, etc.) focus heavily on content and reason rather than experience and application.

When I moved to California three and a half years ago and started to look for a church, I had a hard time finding one that balanced my mind (which I think is more rational) and my experience of faith (yep, the Foursquare roots). :) I have swung back and forth on this pendulum, and I think most churches have a difficult time balancing the two as well. I notice that my teaching is a lot more focused on the rational & intellectual, mostly because I have a harder time thinking of good illustrations here and there, plus I just really like to dig into the text! :) But holistic teaching, as was Jesus' teaching, involves both the mind AND the heart, intellect and personal application that should cause the listener to make changes leading to life transformation.

Talbot puts a lot of emphasis on Spiritual Formation in addition to intellectual study. This balance is vital in communicating the truths of God from the head to the heart. Those times when my faith is balanced appropriately are the best. I find myself attending and working at a Baptist church, sometimes moonlighting at a Vineyard church (Sunday evenings!) to get my charismatic kick, and balancing it with some theological study and personal study and prayer time. It works for me. :)