and then things started getting weird

So, This week, I've spend less than 1/3 of my time in the offices because
1. I volunteered at the CCDA women's RE conference (my host was the one who suggested it)
2. I moved into the Door house
3. we still have no air conditioning, so they've been closing super early

the women's conference was great! I made some connections with Urban Youth Workers Initiative. The coolest part was meeting Amber, the photographer. She's working with Guatamalan immigrants in West Palm. She was so cool! and she asked for my advice about how to get college students to intern with her organization.

yes, I made the move. I'm living with 2 males (an older brazilian man, and a recent college grad) and 2 other girls are moving in tomorrow. I'm not going to lie, it's awkward. I'm sure God will get me through it, and the house is well divided, so I do have a lot of privacy. It's much closer to my offices (I might consider biking there), and we're a few blocks West of Little Havana.

Yeah, no air conditioning. The office got to be 92 degrees yesterday, so we all went home around 1pm. They cancelled work today (which was great because I was supposed to be at the conference). Hopefully, by Tuesday it will be fixed.

Observations:
- There aren't any cameras on the stoplights. I couldn't figure out why, until I started noticing what the yellow light means. Slow down? no, no. keep going at your normal pace and pull out as far as you can if you have to turn so you're blocking the traffic that has the green light.

- Everyone speaks Spanish to me first, even though I'm white. Have I replied in Spanish? no. I probably should try this to get some rapport going.

- McDonalds in Miami have "Cafe Con Leche" on their menus.

- I still don't know what kind of music to listen to because there's the meriachi band style, the spanish celine dion style, and the spanish rap.

Good Stuff:
- Once we get back into air conditioning, I'm meeting with Mary and Yvonne to get a check on my formula for interviews and will start calling to set them up.
- One of my REALLY good friends called me yesterday. She mentioned John 15 about Christ being the vines, and we are his branches. She encouraged me to be in Christ everyday.
- One of my housemates is writing a book on being anti-college. He asked me to estimate how much information I've learned at Covenant I could have learned by reading books or from the internet. I said 30%. He didn't believe me. I completely disagree with his views because I thought about the things that I will forever take with me that I got from Covenant, and the majority of them weren't quotes from text books or found over the internet. They were from my professors desires to encourage, challenge, and relate to me. I thought about the one thing that I will always remember from 210:

We were discussing why there's poverty in the world. In short, we said that because of the fall, man's 4 fundamental relationships (man's relationship with God, with himself, with creation, and with others) broke. One of the effects that those 4 broken relationships have is poverty.

We then defined developmental work. Developmental work is helping others reconcile those relationships. But the key to understanding this definition is that all of us need repair to those relationships, and we as humans cannot fix those relationships, only God can.

So, the class saw the obvious problem, If we can't reconcile those relationships, what are we supposed to do?

Dr. Fikkert then proceeded to write in large bold letters "GOD HAS TO WORK!!!!" He then told us that as community development majors we were signing up for a job that we can't and never will accomplish. We're getting a degree in NOTHING. The only way our careers can work out is if we drop to our knees everyday and PRAY for a MIRACLE to happen.

Those words have stuck with me all 3 years of my college career. I couldn't have gotten that same message from a text book, definitely not in the intensity it needs to be said.

So, now I'm longing to be back learning at Covenant, but I know I'm learning a lot here.
Oh, and I've started praying for miracles.

PRAY:
- for my relationships with my housemates, that God will show me how to love my brothers and sisters in Christ during the next 2 months.
- that we can go back to the office ASAP and I can get going on these interviews!
- Contentment and joy, no matter what the day brings.