Phone Blogging- Part One

Today was our first big day with the group. A big thanks to all my prayer warriors- Mandie's first prayer tour was given with great success!!! Today we went to our first ministry sites and we got there with little to no problems and arrived at sites on time! The first site was BACC (Bay Area Christian Connection) which is where my housing site is. We did some work on the basement which will serve as housing for our next group coming on Sunday. This project included cleaning the basement and clearing out the "junk" that the church has stored in the space. It was a huge lesson in need versus want and having an over abundance of stuff. And it wasn't all bad stuff to have, donated items including clothes, kitchen stuff, toys, decorations- but all it did was sit there, not in use, not being given away, just sitting. It really made me re-evaluate stuff. I moved to California for 5 weeks, and while I didn't bring everything I own (like my kitties), I brought what I needed- bare necessities. Outside of a few tokens like pictures and cards my life fit into two suitcases, so why do I still have an apartment full of stuff? Again, it's not all bad, I don't mean that at all, but it is worth thinking about.

After a morning of cleaning and packing, we ate a quick sack lunch by a fountain in a little area called, MOCHA, which is a museum of children's art. Then we headed to Bay Area Rescue Mission to volunteer with their after school kids program called "King's Club". I met a little boy named Elisha who was the most polite little boy I've ever met. He shook my hand, introduced himself to me and walked me through the video game he was playing. He sat next to me in Bible Study and talked to me through the whole thing. =) He made me miss all of the relationships I have back home, especially with my younger friends (like the Towne kids) but it also made me glad that God created me with a big enough heart to love them all.

We ate dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant and got to eat with our hands!!!! We ended the night at Fenton's Creamery and I had an ice cream sundae that was entirely too large. (PS- for those of you who have seen the movie "Up", Fenton's was the featured ice cream parlor that the little boy and old man sat in front of and ate ice cream and counted cars).