Our New Home

A few months ago we decided it was time to move. We started looking for jobs and interviewing and let the church in Artesia know that we would be leaving soon. We heard about a youth ministry job in Seattle and I immediately started dreaming... well, at the end of June we came up for an interview and at the end of July we we drove 4 days across the country and made it to our new home.




In the month and a half we've been here (I'm not counting the 11 day mission trip to Arizona that we left for 3 days after arriving in Seattle), we found a nice little townhome in an area that's close to downtown and also to the church building in Shoreline. The day after we moved in, I got a job working at the Boys and Girls Club Service Center, thanks to the HR director who is a friend from church. I ride the bus downtown every day and just love it.

We had to sell our sweet Sophia Lucia (our newest addition to the pet family) to some friends here because we just don't have the space here that we had in Artesia. She has a great home and Cortez is fine without her. :) I miss her, but we can see her anytime we want.



I think Cortez definitely prefers being an inside dog. He's been so good throughout everything and is so much better behaved than he used to be. He gets a lot more attention and gets walked a few times a day. :) The poor guy is sick today, though. Ross and I woke up late and discovered that he had gotten pretty sick during the night in the garage (which, by the way, is the coolest place in the house). He is weak and pitiful and can hardly stand because of something wrong with his back leg. I stayed home from church with him to clean up, make sure he's ok, and let him out when he needs out. He tried to follow me any time I leave the room but can't quite get up to do it so I'm trying to stay close to his side. I feel like a mom with a sick kid! We don't have a vet yet here, which is something we really need to do...




Ross and I are really wanting to start being healthier and exercising more often. It's good that we have to walk Cortez a few times a day - it gives us a little exercise too. And we have this beautiful park just a few blocks away, part grass and playground and picnic tables, and part thickly wooded with trails through the trees (and fresh blackberries to pick). There's also Greenlake, a gorgeous lake and park area a little farther away. We have really great areas nearby to enjoy being outside, but sadly the weather is already turning gray and drizzly and cold, so exercising outside will not be happening much longer. We're probably going to try P90X which we've heard so much good about. Our living room is really small so hopefully it doesn't require to much space!




Mom and Dad came to visit last weekend and we had a great time showing them around. Since we are still new here, we didn't quite know the best places to take them, but I think they enjoyed what they did get to see: a lot of downtown, where I work, our church, Pike Place market, a view of the Space Needle, a ferry to Kingston, the waterfront, and a few good restaurants. For Christmas, all of Dad's side of the family is going to Cabo San Lucas together. Grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I can't wait! It's going to be such a good time. All of the famliy rarely gets together because we're spread out all over the US, and what a great place to do it!




Until then... exploring and enjoying Seattle, and trying every day to bring glory to God.

Zoe

It's time for a new adventure.

No idea what's coming next. Well, I have a few ideas, but they're all very different and we may not even end up doing any of them. But something new is coming, and it's like a spring of excitement has opened in me again. I love the uncertainty of making big changes (although sometimes it's a love-hate relationship), the liberty in leaving behind something that made me weary every day, and the many possibilities of what could be.

But a lot of people are more realists than me. They like to be killjoys to people with big dreams and full trust that God will provide. "But where are you going?" "But what if you don't find a job soon?" "How will you afford living off just his salary and your savings?" "Do you really even have any idea what you want to do?" "How will you find a job when you can't even pinpoint the job you want?" "Why don't you just stick to the safe route until you have something figured out?"

The safe route is what kills me. It's been robbing me of my passions and desires and the zoe within me (zoe = full, abundant life that Jesus talked about wanting for us). Abraham was a man who had everything he needed, had many friends and family around him, knew what lay ahead for him in his future. He was safe, he was set. But God called him away from all that. We never hear anything about Abram and God, or even Abram's family and God, until God calls him. He tells him to leave behind everything he knows, follow God, and God would take care of him.

Well, God was true to his word. Abraham (his new name: "Father of many") became a very wealthy man (although that's not the point) and God gave a son to his barren wife. From that son came innumerous ancenstors, a great nation, and the most incredible gift of all: the savior of the world, who lived and died and made a way that we all might have zoe, both now and forever. Just imagine if Abram had refused God's call and instead, stuck with the logical choice - the one that he knew would take care of his family and make sure they were provided for; the one that followed all of the knowledge and experience from his 75 years rather than an intangible being he likely never heard a word from before. Imagine no Israel. Imagine no Jesus.

I'm not expecting God to bring a savior into the world through me. He's already done that and he doesn't need to again. But I am expecting him to do great things through mine and Ross's life when we follow his holy spirit in us. He used all kinds of nobodies in the Bible. Prophets who spoke his word which turned the hearts of nations, boys who became kings and brought glory to his name among all nations, fishermen who were honored above all to be at the feet of Jesus until his death and went on to tell the world about the Messiah! Pharisees who turned from the law they had clung to and instead found joy in suffering for the name of Jesus.

I am convinced that nothing in my life will ever matter, and I will never be full, unless my income, possessions, career, health, comfort, pride, and yes even my friends and family (Luk 14:26), pale in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord (Phil 3:8). That's where our zoe comes. When serving his will is the first thing we think about in the morning, the last thing we think about at night, and the driving force of everything we do, we will know the beautiful, peaceful, joyful, complete life for which God created us.

He's been calling. He's been offering his zoe. But it means trusting him to lead us. It means not relying on our own understanding and knowledge, but on His.

And so, we go.

If I don't do something remotely mind-engaging, I'm going to fall asleep (it's already happened a couple times). So I guess that means it's time to blog.

I had another pregnant dream last night. I've had way too many to count lately. And of course, Callie's pregnant, Niki's pregnant with #3, Audra just had #4, Tiffany's pregnant with #2, Patsy's telling me she's had dreams about me being pregnant and apparently her dreams are pretty prophetic. And I've talked to lots of women lately who got pregnant on birth control, without missing a pill or doing anything wrong. Ahh these things make me nervous!

Here's the latest exciting idea for Ross's and my future... without including babies any time soon! Jill threw an idea at me and I LOVE it. It involves traveling, living in another country (very possibly Latin American), being near good friends, and doing work that we WANT to do. Not to say that Ross isn't doing what he wants to do, just me. Hence blogging about doing something else with my life as I sit, bored at work.

It's called the HIM program. Helpers In Missions. You do mission work alongside an established missionary for 2 years. Me, Ross, Jill, and Thomas would love to go and work together. After the 2 years, figure out what we'd want to do from there. I would LOVE to do it with Susie in La Carpio, Costa Rica. There is such awesome work going on there and I've been there and been a part of it and seen how God is working through them to reach a poverty-ridden neighborhood of immigrants. Of course there are plenty of other places we could go and that one is not very likely, but as I imagine all of this working out, that's what I see in my head. La Carpio. Sharing a small house with Jill and Thomas in the neighborhood, or buying some farm land just across the bridge. Growing a community garden and sharing it with everyone. Raising chickens or cows and sharing their produce. Playing soccer with the kids, teaching the young mothers all that they missed out on learning because they couldn't go to school, helping at the clinic for the people who can't make it into the city for health care, helping them become legal residents so they can take care of their families, buying tortillas from the ladies on the streets and sharing a part of their lives, teaching and learning and growing together in God's love.

Well, I'm awake now. And I'll be thinking of Costa Rica for a while now...

I wanna move to New York.

Big city.

Farmers markets.

Thrift stores.

Lots of non-profits to work for.

Free stuff to do all the time.

People everywhere.

JILL (that's me and Jill!)

Tons of natural/organic food.

Freegans.

Recycling.

Public transportation.

Broadway.

Ok, that's it. I'm going back. :)

How Did We Get Here?

I'm very thankful for a whole lot of things in my life. Things now, things in my past, things in my life growing up...

But I'm also a little angry about some things. I grew up in the middle of a world, a country, a people, very consumed by some things, ideas, and practices that I'm not proud of. And it seems it has only gotten more intense as I've gotten older.

We like to have money. But we don't keep it long. We like to spend it too much. And when we don't have it? Spend it anyway. We like to have nice, new things. We like our things to look good. Even when the things we had before were still functioning fine. But if newer and better is out there, we like to make that happen for ourselves.

We fill up our houses that we will be paying for the rest of our lives with stuff that we're still paying for too. Half of that stuff we never see because it's locked away in a closet or the attic. Some of it we see once a year, like at Christmas time when the entire decor of our houses changes to red and green and lights and stars. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, of course. Who probably would thoroughly enjoy our decorations, our unusually large amount of electricity use, our uprooted trees that will soon be thrown away, our expensive new toys and clothes and other presents that will only keep us happy for a very short amount of time, and our impatience with family members and friends that we would rather not have to spend so much time with. Right?

We base our success levels on how high up our jobs are and how much money we make, while time spent with family and friends and resting and doing things we love get pushed aside. We are so caught up in the need to feed our longing for stuff that we neglect teaching our own kids and instead pay for strangers to raise them and teach them all the things they need to know.

We go to church sometimes and feel better about ourselves. But we forget that "going to church" is something we made up a long time ago, and will never do anything for our souls. Being the church, reaching out to the needs of the world, loving people unconditionally, and showing them the God who loves them, can never be accomplished by going to church. We ask God for things when we need it, but when there are hurting people around us and across the world from us who need things, we're too attached to all that we have to realize that God needs us to meet their needs. Some of us who really care about our kids knowing God expect them to learn it all in an hour a week during Sunday school instead of teaching them about him in our homes, families, and everyday lives.

We think community is a place where we live next to neighbors we never see or talk to and don't have time to get to know them anyway. We prefer to have our busy schedules that keep us living the extravagant lives we like instead of having real relationships with people that require time and effort and sacrifice and yield more back to us than anything else can. We involve our kids in all kinds of activities from a young age so that they can be the best at something when they get older and feel some sort of worth and make a living and be respected... instead of teaching them how to be a kind, honorable, compassionate, generous, humble, loving person.

We buy things from and work for companies that care about little more than profit. Whose CEO's make more in an hour than their sweatshop workers across the world will make in 10 years. Who rob the earth's resources with no concern for the consequences now, tomorrow, for themselves, or anyone else.

We trash this beautiful earth God created for us to take care of, fill up landfills with the things we got tired of, the stuff that workers slaved to make for their companies, wasted food that could feed the thousands of people who starve to death every day, pollute the air and water and then create medical fixes for our tortured lungs and bodies, eat things that were never meant to be put in our bodies and take all kinds of medicines when we don't feel good.

We have no idea what it means to love our neighbors, much less our enemies! We'd rather bomb them and get rid of them so we never have enemies to worry about loving. We're arrogant enough to think we have some right to the country we were born in and want to kick out anyone who was born in a different country, even if they're just trying to feed their family. We can be paid enough to say or do anything. We think our government owes us something so we vote for the things that will benefit us most. We have no idea what humility means and cling to our pride and everything that puffs it up. We'dmuch rather see someone else hurt or embarrassed than admit out wrong or apologize for our own reproach.

I'm angry that I grew up in a world like that. And I'm even more angry that I've been a part of it.


God, save us from ourselves! We've forgotten you and your ways and all that is Good. Remind us, whatever it takes. Bring us to rock bottom if that's the only way we will come back to you and learn your ways again. And forgive us for the people we've hurt, the times we've hurt ourselves, our contempt of your creation, our selfishness and pride, our unwillingness to let go of our own way and see instead how good your way is.